Harry Potter and the Fateful Bonds
by Rennerd
Summary: Abandoned by his friends, Harry Potter fled Britain, and hasn't been able to stop running since. But fate will stop him from running, bound in chains heavier than any magic.
1. Chapter 1

**A.N. So a HP/Sekirei cross this time. While I've been writing this for a while, I'll admit that reading Racke's sekirei crossovers in 'an incomplete Potter collection' drove me to finish the chapter. While I dislike 'child Harry' protagonists as a rule, I enjoyed it enough to be inspired.**

* * *

Harry Potter sighed as he walked down the streets of the city. He wasn't massively fluent at Japanese but he was learning. He'd been in Japan for a few weeks now, and it was as vexing as all the previous times he'd had to up and move to a new place. He'd lived in multiple countries, although it wasn't particularly by choice. He hoped that he'd be able to stay here for some time before they caught up with him, but that didn't seem likely. It was times like this he really hated divination. Hermione had always scoffed at the subject, but his best guess was that divination was somehow involved in the technique being used to track him. He'd managed to find a way that would, hopefully, counter it. Well, probably little more than a fool's hope.

He looked up at a tall building, or more accurately the large screen on it displaying the face of what looked like an older man. From what he'd seen, the man was CEO of a large company that apparently owned most the city. For some reason Harry was reminded of Dumbledore by the man, probably the eccentric behaviour the man displayed on TV, although at least Dumbledore never talked about a new age or whatever.

He stuck his hands in his pockets and sighed again. While he was more than capable of using magic to get food and lodging (God bless the confundus) or to just get money (thank you simple stunner) he preferred not to push his notoriously bad luck, getting caught on CCTV or some such that had been drummed into his head at Hogwarts.

Hogwarts. The name sent a pang of regret through his heart. He had never even started his final year, something he truly regretted. Thoughts, fantasies of slipping Ginny into broom closets, along with other girls he had fancied, slipped through his mind, causing him to sigh again.

As he was walking he bumped into someone, falling to the floor.

He sat up, muttering about looking where he was going.

"Sorry" the man spoke, offering Harry a hand to get to his feet.

As Harry got to his feet, a spark of recognition flashed through the man's eyes.

"You Harry Potter Yes?" the man spoke in rough English.

Harry stiffened, his hand subtly moving to draw his wand.

"What of it" Harry said. He could have denied it, but since the man was asking he had likely seen a certain distinctive mark that would prove it.

The man swiped out and brandished his wand, clearly stating the incantations, casting a couple of spells.

Harry, who had jumped back eyed the man warily.

"Just spells. Make people and cameras not see us." The man explained.

"Sounds handy" Harry muttered, committing the spells to memory.

"I apologise Potter-san" the man switched to Japanese "but I have to take you in."

"Why?" Harry asked "I haven't done anything wrong."

The man hesitated. "Surely you know. Voldemort has taken England and is making serious progress on Europe. The entire ICW have been unable to stop him. But he still wants you. He will leave alone any country that hands you over. For the sake of Japan, you will be coming with me."

Ah yes, that. He'd been run out of several countries by governments after his head to ensure their safety. With a swift motion Harry had his wand in his hand. "I apologise, but I have no intention of 'coming quietly'." His lips twitched as he thought of when Dumbledore had said those words.

The man said nothing, the two of them facing off. "My name is Shigi." The man spoke suddenly. At Harry's confused look he explained "you deserve to have someone's name to curse. Or at least you should curse that you bumped into me today when we had no idea you were here."

Within moments of the man finishing his sentence he was forced to swish his wand to block a blasting curse aimed at his chest.

"I have no intention of dying for your country" Harry snarled.

* * *

Harry groaned as he got to his feet. The man, Shigi, stood at the mouth to the alley he'd just been thrown down, staring at him unperturbed.

"You can't beat me." The man explained "Your skills are insufficient, although better than I expected from a dropout. So please, come with me before you get seriously hurt." The man asked.

Harry wiped some blood from his face where his impromptu flight (or rather the landing) had scratched him.

"Like Hell!" he snarled, jumping to the side, dodging a spell and preparing to throw a piercing curse at the man when he landed. His eyes widened at a second spell racing at his head.

Harry raised his right arm, intercepting the spell. There was aloud cracking sound as his arm was hit. He dropped his wand, snatching it with his left hand, and Harry took the opportunity to throw a blasting curse at his opponent.

The man flicked his wand, a barrier forming between them, absorbing the impact. Harry took the opportunity to try and flex his fingers. They barely twitched.

The man and Harry stared at each other for a moment. Harry flicked his wand, trying to yank the man up by his ankle, one of Snape's spells. Even though the spell couldn't be seen, the man had already moved to shield against Harry's spell.

The alleyway they were in received damage as spells were dodged or deflected. As what Harry recognised as a blasting curse flew towards his shoulder, his lips twitched. He moved his body into the path of the curse.

The man frowned at the body lying on the floor, blood splattered around and pooling under it. His spell had been aimed at the shoulder, a non-lethal attack. The boy had purposefully moved to take the spell over his heart. He turned to survey the alleyway. They had caused a lot of damage to it. He turned back as a strange feeling came over him, just in time to take a blasting curse to the chest.

Harry slowly got to his feet. His clothes were ripped where he had taken the curse, but his skin was unblemished and the blood that had been around had vanished.

Harry took the opportunity to walk over to the man. He looked down at the man. His shirt was staining with blood, and blood was being expelled with each desperate gasp. Harry raised his wand in his left hand, casting a severing curse, taking the man's head.

"I'm sorry" Harry said to the severed head. "You were a better duellist than me. But now it seems you should curse your misfortune in meeting me."

With that said, Harry proceeded to clean himself up, repairing his clothes and healing the injuries that were beginning to throb, before proceeding to transfigure the corpse into some rubbish and throwing it into a dumpster.

He then rolled up his right sleeve, revealing a fake arm, with cracks running through the entire thing. He tried clenching his fist. His fingers twitched, but not much more. He tapped the arm with his wand, casting a spell to repair the inner workings of the arm. Once it was again usable, he repaired the casing of the arm.

Every time he did maintenance, he remembered how he lost the arm. He had broken into a pyramid in Egypt, looking for anything that could help him against Voldemort. He had found a few things, though whether they could help him or not was up for debate.

Regardless, someone had found out about his presence. He had been forced to fight his way past a ministerial capture team, as well as a group of goblins that had wanted to offer him up to Voldemort. Getting out of Egypt had literally cost him arm. Unfortunately, he didn't know how Voldemort had created that silver limb for Wormtail. He had heard that Germany was working on creating magical-mechanical prosthetics, and had broken in and obtained one, as well as the information on how to maintain them.

Seeing that his arm was once again in working order, he removed all the blood from the alleyway, doing what he could to repair it and walked back into the main street.

* * *

Harry Potter sighed as he walked down the street. This was such a pain in the arse. It seemed Voldemort was still as unstoppable as ever, and not only that, but every country was _still_ on the lookout to appease him. At least there was a silver lining in this, apparently the Japanese ministry had no idea as to him being here, so there wouldn't be a manhunt for him anytime soon.

He wondered if he should leave the city. On the one hand no one was looking, but on the other he had just left a corpse in his wake. Looking up, he saw that it had begun to snow. Slipping into an alley, he cast a quick spell that turned his jacket into a thicker coat.

Slipping back into the street, he eyed a young teen who was holding some food of some sort. Having become hungry, a quick curse later and the food was now his, the teen believing he had finished them.

As he began eating them, he longed for the meals he had forsaken back in Britain. Thinking back, he had been prepared, or rather, had always intended to go after the Horcruxes alone. As Ginny had said, just letting Voldemort do as he pleased would have made him miserable, make him desire to be doing something. Of course his friends, rather predictably, had insisted they be allowed to come along. What was surprising, was that he let them. But then, the warmth of human company is not so easily abandoned.

They had known going in, he had made sure, that he had no real plan of action. However, it seemed that they had not believed him. With their lack of progress, it had come to a head. End result; he had been left alone. He had been prepared for that, yet it still stung. To the point where he had just yelled 'fuck it!' and snuck out the country.

That had been years ago, he thought. Yet he still looked the same. He had sought answers to that. He had _not_ liked them. He pushed the thought from his mind. He didn't want to deal with it right now.

He suddenly looked up. He felt a strange sensation. He couldn't put words to it. Looking around, he determined that the source of the feeling was a young woman. She was sat at the side of the road, looking hungry and miserable. His heart went out to her. He looked down at the package in his hands. One left. He closed his eyes. He could always obtain more. Not everyone was so lucky (heh, him, lucky, he thought). Opening his eyes, he walked over to the girl, hand outstretched with the last bun in it.

"Here."

The girl looked up "Huh?"

"Here. The bun. You look hungry, right? Things can always get worse, so cheer up, okay." Let it not be said that he was good at raising people's spirits.

She hesitantly stretched out her hand, taking a hold of the offered bun, brushing against his hand. The feeling that had make him approach her intensified as they came into contact, her cheeks reddening slightly.

With the bun in hand, she spoke softly. "I've finally found you."

She moved faster than Harry had thought she could, pressing her lips to his. Harry felt a strange sensation coursing through him. He didn't have the words to describe it.

"My Ashikabi." She murmured, wings of light emerging from her back.

* * *

Harry pinched at the bridge of his nose. "So let me get this straight. You're a 'sekirei', some type of alien, and you have to fight in a battle royale in this city." The girl nodded. He really should have left the city before.

They were stood in an alleyway off the main road, out of sight of the passer-by's. The girl stood hunched over, as though she were afraid of something.

"So, what is this 'Ashikabi' thing I apparently am?" he asked with a sigh.

"It's a Sekirei's destined partner, the person we live to find and love." The girl said plainly.

The moment the word 'destined' passed her lips his fist involuntarily clenched. He gave no other sign of his irritation, but the girl seemed to sense it and drew back. He forced himself to relax.

He honestly wasn't sure what to make of it. He'd certainly never heard of 'sekirei' before, though it seemed to be the sort of thing the ministries would want in on.

He looked at the girl carefully. Judging by the state of her clothes, she didn't have anywhere to stay and had been sleeping rough for a while. He thought that he shouldn't get involved with her, but he wasn't yet heartless enough for that.

"If you don't have anywhere to go, you can stay with me while I think it over." He said reluctantly.

They were simple words, but the effect was obvious. The girl's face lit up, with a radiant smile that overcame her plain looks.

As they began walking back to the hotel he was staying at, he realised something.

"Hey, we haven't been introduced yet. I'm Harry Potter." He said, holding out his hand.

The girl looked at it for a moment, before taking it into her soft hand. "I'm Kuno. Please look after me, now and forever."

* * *

Harry sighed in pleasure as he drank his cup of tea. Given the day he'd had, he wouldn't have minded some whiskey, but given that bad things tended to happen when he started drinking, he resigned himself to tea. He had taken Kuno back to the hotel he was staying at. She was currently taking a shower, given she seemed to be rather dirty. Harry was glad, it gave him time to think.

The girl had bound herself to him in some way. Harry wasn't sure of the details, but even though he knew he should have just left her on the street, he hadn't. If he was just giving her a place to stay, that would be one thing, but Harry found himself not wanting to leave her alone, it was almost like some 'love at first sight' bullshit. He was pretty sure he wasn't in love, but leaving her would leave a bad aftertaste. It was a bit like a veela aura, he mused, but rather than 'love me to the exclusion of all else' it was more like 'protect me'.

It kind of annoyed him, but, regardless of 'why' he felt the way he did, he wanted to keep her around. Sneaking in and out of countries would probably be harder with her than when alone, but it couldn't be helped. Unless she didn't want to when he told her the truth. Or however much of it he was going to.

He heard a door opening. Looking over, Kuno entered the room dressed in her dirty clothes. Seeing him look at her, she smiled at him. Before he realised what was happening, he found himself smiling back.

As if guided by the hand of fate, the moment she entered the room, the TV turned on.

"Congratulations!" came an annoying voice.

Harry looked over. A somewhat familiar face was on the TV. Harry turned away, looking for the remote, figuring he'd sat on it or something.

"Wait, I'm talking to you, Mister Paddy Moon!"

Harry frowned. Was _that_ the pseudonym he'd used to check into this hotel? Damn, he'd have to pay more attention to what he was doing in the future.

"So, what do you want?" Harry said.

"I'm going to inform you about the great game you have been chosen to participate in!" the man exclaimed dramatically.

"This 'Sekirei plan'? Kuno's told me about it." He said bluntly.

The man laughed. "Perhaps, but I dare say there are things she didn't mention. First, you can't tell anyone about the plan. If you do, MBI will 'deal' with you."

"Right." Harry rolled his eyes.

"Second" The man exclaimed loudly "You absolutely can't leave the city. If you do, MBI will track you down and bring you back by force."

Harry narrowed his eyes "You're forcing me to stay here? That doesn't really mesh with my plans."

"Then you'll have to reconsider those plans. For the duration of the game, you'll have to stay here, as one chosen by fate to partic-" his voice was cut off as Harry's fist went through the TV screen.

"Don't." Harry said darkly, causing Kuno to pull back in fright "Say that word to me."

He took a deep breath to calm himself. "Sorry." He muttered, "I just really dislike that word." With that, he started pulling shards of television out of his fake hand.

"I'm sorry." Kuno said. Looking over at her, he could see that there were tears in her eyes, and she was trying not to cry.

"I'm pathetic, I can't fight, I'm weak, I'm clumsy, and all I can do is cry. Because of me, you have no choice but to participate in the sekirei plan. I'm sorry." She said, holding back her tears.

Looking at her, Harry sighed. Reaching out, he placed his hand on her head, ruffling her hair. "Don't worry. Everything will work out. Somehow." He smiled at her reassuringly. Seeing it seemed to cheer her mood.

After she went to sleep, he just spent a while staring at her. This was really annoying. While he had no doubt MBI couldn't catch him, he had no doubt they had some way of tracking the sekirei. Even if they didn't, staying on the run with her from both wizards and muggles was likely to be incredibly hard.

First things first, he'd have to investigate this 'MBI' to see what kind of trouble they could pose to him. If he couldn't risk leaving, then he'd have to wing it. Either way, he hoped this 'Sekirei plan' was resolved quickly. Wizards tracking him down while he couldn't leave would make things get hairy indeed.

* * *

 **A.N. Poor Shigi-kun! His dad (or some other relative) is killed, his meat buns stolen and his fated encounter taken away. Who knows if he'll show up again.**

 **To pre-empt any complaints about it, his attachment to Kuno is a combination of some 'sekirei bond' stuff, as well as being pretty desperate for companionship. Not that he admits that to himself.**

 **Harry's 'weakness'. As said, Harry is a dropout. I dislike those stories where 'school Harry' can outfight Aurors and death eaters with ease. Harry has had no combat training. His talent and experience let him hold his own, and he usually finds a way to win, but he won't be just brushing opponents off.**

 **Sekirei. Fairly certain I've not seen a story, ever, where the main character picks up Kuno as their first (or any) Sekirei. Any fans of the series, feel free to suggest Sekirei that Harry will be with. I'll get straight out there with this first; Not Karasuba. Other than that, I will at least consider opinions. Slightly leaning towards Musubi and crew, since they're the characters that made me enjoy the franchise, but I could go either way. Would prefer not to use any oc's, but might be interesting to do so.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A.N. So Akitsu was probably the most popular character mentioned in reviews by far. I mean, I wasn't really surprised, but I thought given her almost universal inclusion in fics, people might have not asked for her. Ah well. Aside from that, honestly surprised at the number of requests for Yashima.  
**

 **As usual, I have no idea whether I should play around with the honorifics. They add an important element, but I always feel weird writing them.**

 **Hmm, I threw in a few things this time, they'll probably be hit or miss, hopefully they're well received.  
**

* * *

Sirius would probably be proud. That was the strongest thought in Harry's head as he pressed against the wall as a couple of men armed with guns walked past. Harry had wasted no time in sneaking in to MBI's building. It wasn't hard to find, it was a very big building, and literally the first person he walked into outside his hotel had been able to point him in the right direction. He'd not broken into a muggle facility before, but it shouldn't be that different from breaking into a magical one.

He was wearing his invisibility cloak, and had simply waltzed in to the building. After getting out of the public area, the building style seemed to change. It was less, warm, he guessed. Sterile, perhaps, if the few sci-fi movies he'd watched at Privet Drive had been right. Then there were the heavily armed flunkies. Of course, guns weren't a threat, so long as he was expecting them, but he'd rather avoid making an impression that would bring the attention of the Japanese magicals on him.

This brought him back to his thought; breaking into a building belonging to an obscenely rich company, stealing private information for the sake (tangentially) of a girl, no doubt his Godfather, were he alive, would be making some improper comment, while shooting him a thumbs up.

He spied a woman walking past, barking orders at someone following her. He guessed it was orders, she was speaking rapidly enough that he had trouble understanding her. Either way, she was probably important, and he recognised the card clipped to her lab coat as an identification card. He flicked his wand, an identical card appearing in his hand. He smirked, magic was so useful.

He waited for a moment for some distance to open up between them, before continuing on his way. With a grimace, he realised he had no idea where he was going. He looked down at his artificial right hand. It wasn't the only thing he'd picked up in Germany. He'd need to find a computer of some kind, hopefully they'd have the relevant data. If it did, he'd see about doing what he could about disabling whatever means they had to track Kuno, then he'd be able to leave.

Coming to a door, he read the sign above it, something to do with computers. He smirked, seeing as there was some kind of sensor at the side of it, he reached out, flashing the Id card in front of it. From what he'd seen, he'd have expected it to sense the card as he approached, it seemed his cloak cut off whatever mechanism it used. A light flashed green, and the door slid open. He wasted no time in passing through it.

* * *

"Professor, your keycard was used to open a door to the computer core area."

Takami looked over at the man that spoke, "Huh? What are you talking about?"

The man turned his monitor around, "Here." He said, pointing to the record.

Takami frowned, "That's' not right, I have my keycard right here." She said, gesturing to the card still clipped to her lab coat, "Bring up the camera feed." She stared at the image of an empty corridor for a moment, "It must be some kind of glitch." She frowned deeper, "Anyway, send a team down there, see what's going on."

"Ah-hahahaha" An annoyance laughed.

"What do you want?" She said with irritation.

"I was just in time to stumble across something interesting." Minaka laughed, taking out his phone, "I think I'll send Number 04 to investigate."

"Karasuba?" Takami exclaimed, "Over a glitch?"

Minaka smiled enigmatically, "Just a hunch. Send a team first, it'll take a while for her to get there."

"I was doing that anyway!" she snapped.

* * *

Harry stared around, he knew he was invisible, but it felt like he was being watched. He shook his head, focus on what he was here for. This corridor was long, and the same insufferable white colour. It kind of felt like being a ghost, moving without leaving a single trace. His footsteps were silenced, removing the main weakness of the invisibility cloak. Unfortunately, he didn't know of any charm that could turn oneself incorporeal. He felt a chill down his spine. He glanced around, what was this suspicion?

He saw the door he'd come from open, several armed figures walking in. He narrowed his eyes. Had he been discovered? Had he tripped some kind of alarm? No matter. Stay out of the way, they wouldn't discover him.

He saw the man in front reach up and press something in his ear. Some kind of radio ear piece? He backed against the wall as the man passed. Seeing the ear piece, he flicked his wand, creating a replica, moving it to his ear.

"Is there anyone there?" Came a familiar yet annoying voice.

"Can't see anyone. No trace of an intruder."

"I see, I see, Takami! Bring up the floor pressure sensors!" He cried.

Harry's eyes widened, they had something like that!

"There's another pressure detected!" Another male voice exclaimed across the earpiece.

The armed men span around, pointing their guns this way and that, trying to find him.

"Forward the readout to their goggles!" The annoying man cried.

 _Shit!_ Harry mentally exclaimed, he closed his eyes in focus, slowly rising an inch into the ground. He willed himself to fly down the corridor, but his body started slowly drifting that way instead. He still hadn't ironed out the details of the spell he'd copied from Voldemort; a slow drift was all he could manage.

"The pressures vanished!" A female voice exclaimed.

"Oho, this is getting interesting!" Came the exuberant cry of the annoying man.

Harry grit his teeth. He could just stun everyone, but that would not only be giving away absolute proof he was here, it would be showing part of his hand. It was unlikely MBI was in any way related to magic, even though regardless of what he'd been told of their origins, Sekirei were clearly some kind of magical being, or Minaka would likely have recognised him. That said, it was possible they had someone in some way related to magic, that might recognise any blatant magic.

The MBI troops were looking around frantically, but he had neared the door at the end of the corridor. Swiping the key card across the scanner, he frowned as it beeped red.

"He's at the door!" The annoying exuberant voice exclaimed.

Harry grimaced, flicking his wand he cast an unlocking charm, and, momentarily landing, jumped through the door, closing it with a closing charm. A locking charm would be easily dealt with, if they either had a key, or could control the door with a computer, so he cast a sticking charm at where the door met the wall. That should keep them out.

He turned, facing the contents of the room. It honestly didn't look like a computer, rather some large cuboidal structures. He frowned, what should he do now?

Ignoring the voices shouting about the door, he flicked his wand, making the casing come off the machines, revealing the insides. At last, something that looked computerish.

He looked down at his hand. The prosthetic was not the only thing he'd picked up at the facility in Germany. Given the way muggles were increasingly relying on computers and electronic data, it was clear that simply using memory charms was not sufficient for maintaining the Statute of Secrecy. They were developing something that could connect to electronic devices, scan and erase any information regarding magic, and where any trail led, in case anyone saw it and needed obliviating.

He'd come across the prototype. It was contained in some strange magical field, and when he'd poked it, the field had fallen and it had somehow been absorbed into the fake hand he was wearing.

Switching his wand to his left hand, he tapped it to his wrist, then to the board thingy, an ethereal wire forming between them. He focused on the information he was looking for, any information about how Sekirei could be tracked.

Unfortunately, it was just a prototype, all it could do was copy information. It couldn't actually manipulate it the way it was intended to. Nor could he read the information he was copying. He'd need to attach it to a computer or something to find out what he'd found.

"They're stealing data! Get out of the way!" The female voice snapped.

The connection turned red, causing Harry to frown. He guessed they'd stopped what he was doing. He flicked his wand, an unlocking charm passing his lips. The connection turned blue again.

"What! That's impossible!"

Harry smirked, he loved hearing that.

He felt a shiver down his spine. Reflexively, one of his eyes swiveled around his head, looking back through the door he'd locked. His eyes widened, diving to the side as the door split in two and half of it slammed against the device he'd been stood next to.

A smiling figure walked through the doorway. Clad in grey and black, some kind of long sword in her hand. This sensation, she was definitely a Sekirei. He eyed the broken door, what was that? Some kind of magically enhanced sword technique?

He slowly got into a crouch, making sure he was completely covered by his cloak. He'd have to sneak past her. Rising to his feet, he slowly began edging around her.

Her eyes snapped towards him, before slashing her sword at him, narrowly avoiding as he rapidly stepped back.

"So you are invisible." She drawled, "I don't suppose you'd care to surrender?" She asked, even as she lunged towards him.

Harry grit his teeth as he danced to the side, narrowly evading her slashes. Focusing on his opponent, he noticed her nostrils flaring. Was she able to smell him? He tapped himself with his wand, using a spell to remove smells. It wouldn't last long, it only negated them, not preventing, but he hopefully wouldn't need long. Slowly stepping away from where he had been stood, he watched as the Sekirei seemed to stop, looking around through narrowed eyes.

He slowly waved his wand in an intricate pattern. About a foot form him, where he'd be if he'd dodged the other way, a figure shimmered into being. It was an image of someone dressed in grey fatigues, raising a gun to point at the Sekirei. It was cut down instantly, Harry barely saw her move. No matter, a dozen more images shimmered into existence. He slowly backed away as she wildly swung her sword at all of them.

Reaching the doorway, he turned and sprinted down the corridor, turning his fake eye back to keep an eye on the sword wielder. Thankfully his silencing spell was still active, so his footsteps wouldn't give him away. Seeing the armed guards still in the corridor, he tried to bring Moody's eye back to facing forward, only it didn't respond. He made a 'tch' sound, jammed again. That was why he typically didn't use it as anything other than a normal (albeit with extra functions) eye. He disabled the see through vision, seeing out the back of his head was just distracting when trying to focus forward.

He first cast the spell that disrupted cameras he'd learnt earlier, followed by a wide banisher, knocking all the soldiers onto their backs as he dashed past them. He'd have preferred to float over them, but the cloak didn't cover him from below.

Spelling the door open, he passed through, before sealing it shut behind him. Reactivating his eye, he grimaced as the Sekirei was dashing down the corridor. He grimaced, nothing for it. He apparated out with a soft crack, his lips twisting in distaste as he appeared outside the building. He really hated the sensation of it.

He pulled a piece of cloth out of a pocket, fastening it over the eye that was currently rotated to look out the back of his head. It was rather unpleasant to see, and would avoid anyone paying closer attention to it or asking annoying questions. He idly hoped Moody would approve of his use of the eye, though he had a feeling that the man would be agitated by his not fighting Voldemort.

Turning, he began walking away from the building. Passing a wall, he cast a spell to detect if there were any camera's observing him. Coming up clean, he removed the cloak, stuffing it into a pocket.

There was a sudden sound, like an explosion, but different. Looking around, he saw that there was a hole in the wall of the MBI facility, and that a figure was jumping out. Seeing it would likely land around the corner, Harry dashed forward, slightly intrigued. He watched as the figure landed, stumbling forward clad in a blood stained lab coat. Harry got a good look at the woman's eyes. They looked empty. Harry turned away, there was no reason to get involved with her. No reason he would care.

He heard the sound of her crashing into something. He shouldn't care. He grit his teeth as he heard her knock a rubbish bin over. He _didn't_ care. "Damn it." He muttered to himself, turning back and rushing towards her, reaching her just in time to catch her as she fell forwards. The woman didn't seem to respond. Looking down at her, it looked like her eyes didn't' even see him. And that mark on her forehead, it was familiar. He'd seen it, both on Kuno's back when she'd shown him while trying ot explain about Sekirei and Ashikabi, and on the crazy sword woman's cloak.

Quickly glancing around, he figured it would be best to put distance between him and the MBI building before anyone placed him at the scene of his crime. He subtly drew and pointed his wand at the woman, a tiny red flash and she was unconscious as she leant against his body. A featherlight charm later, and he picked her up, pulling her across his shoulders. He straightened. Damn it, he'd have thought he'd have learnt better than to get involved in other people's problems by now. He cursed himself, why did he have to keep going and making more trouble for himself!

* * *

The stunning charm should last for a few hours when properly cast against a human, somewhat longer against a muggle, and various magical beasts and beings could shake it in less time. The one he'd cast on the woman lasted about ten minutes he noted as he felt the woman stirring.

"Hey there Sleeping Beauty." He said bitterly.

"Where…" She muttered softly.

"I found you outside the MBI building." Harry replied softly. "Unfortunately, I couldn't just leave you there looking like you did. I'm taking you back to my hotel. You can wash, eat, then be on your way."

"I don't, have anywhere to go." She said.

Harry didn't respond, though his fist clenched. People just walked out of his way when he approached, thanks to the muggle repelling charm making them ignore him.

"I am, broken… useless, defective." She continued.

"You're alive." Harry said sharply, probably a bit more than he intended, "So long as you're alive, then there's hope, hope that you can change things."

He felt her staring at the back of his head. Arriving at the front of his hotel, he crouched down. "If you're awake, then you can walk."

The woman seemed to hesitate, before she acceded to his suggestion and came down from his shoulders.

Straightening up, Harry walked past her. "Follow me." He muttered. Not waiting to see if she did, he walked into the hotel, moving swiftly to the elevator.

As he entered, he noticed that the woman had followed him. He grimaced slightly, she was in a bad place if she just followed the first guy to literally pick her up from the floor. Whatever.

They travelled to his room in silence. Harry's thoughts were in turmoil; on the one hand, he really wasn't in a situation where he could afford to butt into other people's problems, nor did he have any reason to do so. On the other, seeing how lost and despaired she looked, he felt sympathy, he'd been alone and lost before, and he'd wished someone could reach out to help. In addition, he just really hated leaving people he could have helped, without doing so. His mind chased itself around in circles, trying to decide what he should do. Hopefully she would have some idea of what to do with herself so it would be a moot point.

Before he knew it, he was unlocking his door. He blinked as he opened the door. Kuno was sitting on the bed with the blanket wrapped around her, and he could practically see the cloud of depression that was hanging over her. He pinched his nose in irritation. Walking over to her he spoke in as gentle voice as he could manage, "Hey, what's wrong?"

Her hand reached out and took hold of his shirt, almost causing him to pull back. "You were gone. I woke up, and you weren't here, and I was alone," She whimpered, tears forming in her eyes.

Harry felt an uncomfortable feeling in his chest. Seeing a girl in tears still completely stumped his thoughts, it was like he hadn't grown emotionally from being a teenager, the same as his body hadn't.

Not knowing what else to do, he reached forward and began stroking her hair as he would have his owl when she was alive, "Don't worry, I won't just disappear." He tried reassuring her, wincing as it was like making a promise he didn't know if he would keep.

She didn't say anything, instead responding by leaning in and laying her head against his chest. Harry flinched, before blinking in shock. Usually physical contact was something that bothered him slightly, but when she touched him, he instead felt, peaceful. Like it was natural.

"Forever." She mumbled into his chest.

Feeling someone staring at his back, he stiffened, remembering the Sekirei behind him. "Anyway, this is… who are you?" He asked, realising hadn't gotten her name.

"I am, Akitsu." She said, still staring through him. He felt Kuno stiffen as the empty voice came. He idly comforted her by stroking her head.

"Right, this is Akitsu. I'm Harry, this girl is Kuno. The shower is through there." He said, gesturing to the en suite. She stared blankly at him for a few moments.

"Go shower." Harry said softly. He watched her go silently. "Kuno, I found her alone and am a bit concerned, would you mind watching her for me?"

Kuno looked up at him with teary eyes, "A-are you going to replace me?" she almost cried.

Harry frowned, "What? No, I just couldn't abandon her. What she does next is up to her. I told you, I'm not going to leave you." He managed to keep the grimace off his face at making such a promise. She smiled at him, and he felt his heart warm up. Whatever the Sekirei bond was, it easily let her into his heart.

Watching as Kuno followed Aktisu into the bathroom, Harry drew his wand, quickly conjuring a glass, before charming it full of water. Reaching up, he shifted the makeshift eyepatch and touched his wand to his fake eye, extracting it from his head. Looking at it for a moment, he plopped it into the glass of water, and idly twirled it around with his wand. He'd done some poking at the eye, to see how it worked, but it was still pretty much a mystery. He wished he knew how to fix whatever was causing it to jam, or at least make a new one, since he was fairly certain that it getting stuck was responsible for Moody's untimely death, and he had no wish for it to fail him at a critical time.

Picking the eye up with his wand, he placed it back in his socket, giving it a spin for good measure to test it had smooth movement again. Seeing it was working fine, he removed the strip of cloth, returning it to his pocket. He looked down at his hand. He'd need to acquire a computer or something, at least a mobile phone, in order to look through the information he'd stolen. Then he might actually be able to figure out what his next step was.

He looked out the window. He could go and get a phone or computer now, but he was tired, and he didn't really feel like leaving Kuno here twice in one night. He could easily go get one tomorrow. May as well relax as much as he could for now.

He walked over to the chair, sitting in it and raising his feet onto the stool in front of it. For now, he'd just wait. He flicked his wand, summoning the glass. Quickly vanishing the water inside, he applied a cleaning charm before refilling the glass, raising it to his lips.

After a while, enough time having passed he'd used magic to make a brew and pour one for himself, the girls came out of the shower. He carefully eyed them. Kuno didn't look as frightened as she had, and was instead trying to adjust the towel wrapped loosely around Akitsu. Harry guessed that she wouldn't have bothered with one if Kuno hadn't been there to put it on her. Well, he was familiar with that kind of depression.

He gestured to another chair he'd created, one for each of them, indicating they should sit down. Pouring a cup for both of them, he asked, "Akitsu, do you have any idea of what you will be doing?" Best to get straight to the point.

She stared at him with lifeless eyes. "No," she murmured, "I am, broken. I cannot, have an Ahikabi."

Something twisted painfully in his stomach, "What do you mean?"

"I am unable to be winged." She explained in her toneless voice, "I am fated to be alone."

He winced, especially at the emptiness in her eyes. He brought a hand up to his face. _Stop it._ He told himself, he'd sworn, he would do whatever it took, selfishly abandon anyone and anything if it got him closer to a way to override his fate. He was in no position to be helping others! An eye cracked open, glancing through the gaps in his fingers to look at Kuno. How would she feel? She looked sad, probably about a Sekirei being unable to find this 'Ashikabi' they desired so much, tainted with relief that she was lucky enough to avoid it.

He grimaced in anguish. Akitsu was a stranger, she meant nothing to him! Kuno was bad enough, he couldn't picture himself being able to abandon her, even after less than a day had passed since their meeting, but to willingly reach out to someone else? Sure, it was possible, perhaps even likely, that Aktisu wouldn't live that long given her current emotional state, but that wasn't his problem!

He thought he'd gotten over this ridiculous need to try and help people in trouble. But then, he recognised her eyes. He'd seen them in the mirror often enough. He'd wished that someone would come and help lift his burdens, someone who he could simply talk with.

He sighed, bringing his hand down. He couldn't do it. He looked over apologetically at Kuno for a moment before speaking, "I don't really get the whole Sekirei-Ashikabi thing, but if you can't have an Ashikabi, then just be my Sekirei." He said, wincing even as he said it. As expected, Kuno let out a 'squeak' sound, looking over with tears in her eyes. Harry leaned forward, placing a hand to ruffle Kuno's hair, and immediately continued, "Unless you find somewhere you'd rather be, then you can stay at both Kuno's and my side."

Akitsu stared at him in confusion, that swiftly made way for wet hope. He hoped she wouldn't cry.

She practically threw herself forward to kneel in front of him, staring at him expectantly. He blinked, before realising what she wanted. He reached forward with his other hand and idly stroked her head, her eyes closing in enjoyment.

 _Damn it._

* * *

Minaka idly scrolled through the reports, before he straightened, coming across something interesting. The broken bird he'd let leave the nest had taken up roost with someone, a rather suspicious new Ashikabi that didn't seem to exist in any record anywhere. This right after an unknown individual had waltzed right into his building and made off with an unknown amount of data.

He grinned, how amusing. Was it fate? Or coincidence? Either way, he should probably act.

* * *

Harry's eyes snapped open. He was seated in his chair, where he'd been sleeping. Kuno and Akitsu had, eventually, gone to sleep in the bed. Harry preferred to sleep fully clothed, (magic could make him presentable) and sat up, so he'd probably have slept there anyway.

His eyes darted around. Something had tipped off the hostility detection charm he'd laid on the floor of the hotel. After a moment he activated his eye. Seeing who had just arrived on the floor, his eyes widened, "Fuck!" He cursed.

He darted to his feet, flicking his wand, the Sekirei's clothes seemed to slither up the bed, seeming to turn into goo and then solidify around the now groggily awake Sekirei.

"Pack!" He commanded, willing the few possessions he had out to jump into his trunk, before lightening and shrinking it, stuffing it into his pocket. He turned to the bed, casting a couple of lightening charms at the Sekirei, before another flick had them shoot over his shoulders. A final flick had the balcony slam open, just in time for him rush through it. He jumped, his foot landing on the edge of the balcony just in time for his door to explode off the hinges, the ginning visage of the sword wielding Sekirei from before rushing through.

"The Black Sekirei?!" Akitsu's voice came from a shoulder, the most emotional he'd heard her.

Harry jumped, as Kuno screamed form her place on his shoulder. As he was falling, he twisted his body, watching the Sekirei dash after and leap the balcony with his magical eye. Pointing his wand at her, he barked _"Arresto Momento!"_ Hopefully she wouldn't have seen the wand or heard the incantation, but it wasn't that important.

The Sekirei blinked in shock as the distance between them seemed to grow. Harry smirked, turning back to face the ground. Activating Voldemort's flight spell, he slowed his descent, whilst also adjusting his movement, putting horizontal distance between him and where the other Sekirei would land.

Approaching the ground, he landed with a slight stumble due to the (admittedly lightened) extra weight, before letting the Sekirei down.

They had landed in a park. Harry sighed, "Well then, I suppose we need a new hotel." As well as new alias.


	3. Chapter 3

**A.N. So, not a single complaint about weird magic computer hand thing, or magic making short work of cutting edge digital technology. Honestly surprised.**

 **So I reread the Sekirei manga, both to get up to date on it, and to refresh my memory of it. I bring it up, since it was probably a mistake, it amped up my affection for the main cast, and consequently my desire to write about them. Well, due to certain reasons, I wanted to avoid writing about too many weapon users anyway, which almost all the suggested ones have been.**

 **Not to say I will be using them all, because I** _ **am**_ **undecided, but that the probability has gone up. One thing worth mentioning is that originally I was writing out Harry's first introduction to Sekirei being the Musubi falling from the sky scene. Hit a snag with the scene, then decided Kuno was more amusing, but given Harry's 'Power of Love' thing, not having Musubi seemed almost criminal.**

 **Kuu, honestly I was particularly undecided on her, but I think her 'life' power is an interesting match for Harry. Almost tempted to go with Tsukiumi based on her Norito alone. I really do like the idea of Kazehana, both because I connect Harry with 'wind' in my head, as well as her helping him enjoy life, or something, but I am having some trouble thinking up the meeting scenario, he lacks the heritage of Minato's that caught her interest. Homura's another iffy one in my head. A brain type like Matsu does offer some interesting opportunities, and I do favour her over Higa's one.**

 **A few people have suggested Miya. I do like the sound of it, but, and I say this with little delving into the fandom, I haven't really enjoyed the few times I've read it, so I'm fairly hesitant to do anything with it.**

* * *

Harry turned and walked away, trusting they'd follow him. The park was pretty much deserted. He figured they'd expect he'd get as far from his previous hotel as possible, so a path that wasn't leading that way was probably better, so he began walking into the park, a direction that was neither away nor towards their previous location.

As expected, the Sekirei quickly caught up, though Harry was stopped by Kuno tripping over what was apparently the ground. He groaned, leaning down to her. "You okay?"

She looked up with tears in her eyes as she rubbed at her face, "I'm fine." She muttered.

Sighing, Harry reached out and grabbed her hand, helping her to her feet. For some reason the action elicited a blush, though that may have been to do with the fall.

"Come on, I'd like to find a new hotel quickly." He said, eyeing his Sekirei. Akitsu was still clad in the shirt and labcoat he'd found her in, though she didn't seem cold, whereas Kuno, dressed as he'd found her, seemed to be a bit chilled, if the way she held herself was anything to go by.

He slowly looked around. Spotting no one, he considered for a moment, before drawing his wand. The Sekirei had been pretty close up when they'd fled the room, it probably wasn't worth the hassle of trying to hide it. With that thought, he flicked his wand at the girl.

Kuno blinked in shock as warmth slowly enveloped her body, as though she was being embraced by Harry. "W-what?" she mumbled.

Harry twirled his wand between his fingers. "I figured you should probably know," He began, silently casting 'mufflatio', just in case, "I'm a wizard." He finished.

Akitsu didn't visibly respond, that he could tell, but Kuno tilted her head, "W-wizard?" She asked.

Harry nodded. He'd said the English word, rather than a Japanese equivalent. "I'll explain more when we get to a hotel. But basically, I can do magic." He said, "Come on, let's get going."

He turned, and began making his way through the park. He heard the sound of Kuno rushing after him, followed by a short cry and an impact against his back, sending him stumbling forward. He grimaced, he'd have to try and remember if there was an anti-tripping charm or something.

As Kuno pushed away from him, he turned, grabbing hold of her hand. "Come on." He sighed, before walking at a slightly slower rate, Kuno beside him as her cheeks reddened at the gesture.

Moments later his other hand was taken by Akitsu, who silently joined them.

As they walked, Harry considered the other Sekirei, the one Akitsu had called 'the Black Sekirei'. Harry hadn't even attempted to fight her, simply miring her with illusions, targeting both sight and the other senses when they first met. If he had attempted to fight her, even with the advantage of being invisible…

The speed at which she swung her sword, as well as the destructive power it displayed, it was definitely some kind of magical technique. He wasn't sure he wanted to find out how his shields stood up against it, and in addition to that, from what he could tell, her reaction times were as good as his, likely even better. He shuddered at the thought of fighting her, particularly in an enclosed space. He might be able to wrangle a victory, he usually did, but he didn't fancy getting dismembered. It would be best to avoid having to fight her. He glanced to the Sekirei at his sides. He didn't know what Akitsu was capable of, or Kuno for that matter, but he at the very least couldn't picture the latter with that kind of power.

* * *

"Observator Revealio"

Harry quickly glanced around the room, nodding in satisfaction as nothing began glowing. No camera's or microphones in the room. They'd found a hotel rather quickly, some quick spell work on his part and they had a room reserved for the next week under the name Peter Potts.

He walked over to get a view out of the window. Unfortunately, there wasn't a balcony, so the window didn't really open far. A quick exit would prove destructive. There was a clear path if he needed to fly out of here, and was pretty close to a main street if he needed to blend in in a hurry. Good. Nodding, he swished his wand, closing the curtains. Another flick dragged the chair next to the wall, facing the door. He didn't bother removing his trunk yet, maybe if they spent the night uninterrupted.

He took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. He'd never done the 'introduction to magic' thing, he found himself a little nervous about how they'd react, which was silly, considering they were (probably) magical beings of some kind.

He turned to face the Sekirei, who were just standing awkwardly in the room. He flicked his wand, turning on the kettle. May as well make tea or something.

Now, how to do this? He could clearly remember his own introduction to magic, perhaps something a little less confrontational?

"As I said earlier, I'm a wizard. We're like ordinary people, except we can do magic." He flicked his wand, causing a pillow to rise up and start dancing, before falling back down into its former position.

"Ooh!" Kuno exclaimed, clapping happily. Harry grinned slightly. It was no pigs tail, but there was no reason to do something like that.

"Eh, long story short, magic can do many wondrous things, can't do others, and I'm pretty sure that Sekirei are some kind of magical being."

Akitsu blinked. "Can Sekirei, do magic?" she asked slowly.

Harry tilted his head, twirling his wand between his fingers. "Honestly? No idea. It may be worth looking into."

"C-can I try?" Kuno asked nervously, eyeing his wand.

Harry froze, his eyes falling to his wand. Truthfully, he didn't want to let them have his wand. "A wand is, an intensely, intimate object." He struggled for words, "It, bonds to a wizard, becomes like a part of ourselves." He hadn't let his wand get more than a foot from him since before he'd left Britain. He couldn't recall a time where he'd ever _let_ someone else use it, and the short time he'd been parted from it had felt like he'd lost part of himself.

He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "Maybe some other time." He conceded. "But for now, basically, magic is a secret, so don't tell anyone, okay?"

"Understood." Akitsu responded dispassionately.

"O-okay." Kuno nodded.

He flicked his wand over at the kettle, having it pour into cups, and floating them over. With his cup floating next to him, he turned to the chair, a swish of his wand creating a luxurious armchair. He really ought to have thanked Dumbledore for showing him that spell. The thought filled his chest with a tight clenching, as thoughts of Dumbledore always did. His fake hand came up to his chest.

It was a fact that there was a prophecy regarding him and Voldemort, and Dumbledore had told him it, only… information that he'd come across later seemed to conflict with what he'd been told. If that was right, and Dumbledore had lied… well, he'd been angry for a while, but he could easily guess _why_ Dumbledore may have done so.

"H-Harry-san?" came the questioning voice.

Harry blinked, turning back to Kuno and Akitsu. "Sorry, just some dark thoughts." He sat in his new chair, taking hold of his cup. "Oh, sorry, would you like a chair?" He asked after a moment, "I must apologise, but I'm not really used to company."

He conjured a pair of chairs akin to his own. Since they were conjurations, rather than transfigurations, they'd return to the ether eventually, but they'd last hours, more than long enough for this conversation.

Akitsu immediately sat in one of the chairs, whereas Kuno poked it a couple of times as if reassuring herself that it was real before gingerly sitting in it. It brought a smile to Harry's face.

"As I said, I'm pretty certain that Sekirei are some kind of magical being, that one from before, with the sword, she was definitely using magic to enhance her blade in some fashion. What can you tell me about other Sekirei?" He asked. He figured he should avoid blatantly asking 'what can you do?' and he was interested in other sekirei too.

"Umm, that was a weapon type Sekirei." Kuno replied, "Other than that, there are other types, like Sekirei that use lightning, or fire." She shivered, as if remembering something unpleasant.

"Which type are you?" Harry asked, curiosity clear in his voice.

In response, Akitsu immediately rasied a hand, and formed a large lump of ice over it, hovering in the air.

Harry's eyes widened, that was pretty impressive as conjuration went, better than he could do without a wand, if it was conjuration.

"I can, control ice." Akitsu explained. Moments later, the ice seemed to break apart, falling to the floor as Akitsu lowered her hand. Seeing she wasn't going to do anything with it, Harry flicked his wand, sending the ice over to the sink where it wouldn't melt all over the floor, before turning to Kuno.

Seeing his stare, she looked away, shame practically coming off her in waves. "I-I can only cry loudly." She muttered.

Harry practically winced at the way she was hunched over herself. Getting to his feet he walked over, laying his hand on her head, "Come now," he began, only to be interrupted.

"When I'm scared, if I cry it becomes really loud, that's all I can do!" she cried. "Then, I'm really clumsy, and I'm not pretty like other sekirei, I'm worthless!"

Harry raised his hand, before letting it fall onto her head with a small thump, cutting off her self-depreciation. She looked up with watery eyes.

The way she was talking, it reminded him a bit of himself before he went to Hogwarts. Well, the thoughts behind them, he'd never have actually voiced such sentiments to anyone. The memory probably turned his attempt at a reassuring smile into something more akin to a grimace.

"Look, if there's one thing I know about magic, it's that just a little confidence, can make all the difference. Trust me, I'm sure that one day you'll find some special talent, so just believe in yourself, alright? Or if you can't, then believe in me, who believes in you. And until you find it, just stay at my side, that's all you need to do."

He definitely grimaced after that, it was like he was just digging himself deeper. Something about her just pressed his buttons, or rather, hit them with a large hammer, repeatedly. He sighed, he really couldn't find it in himself to resent her over it though.

He felt a tugging on his sleeve. Looking over, he saw Akitsu, looking away. He sighed, really, this was too much trouble.

* * *

Harry awoke with a start, automatically pointing his wand at the door. He took a moment to analyse his situation, realising the phone ringing was what woke him up. A momentary glance told him the sekirei with him were sleeping on the bed. At some point during the night, they had shrugged off the covers, revealing their nude bodies. He took a brief moment to appreciate the sight. The chairs he'd conjured had disappeared, and given the light coming through the curtains, it had become morning.

He pushed himself out of the chair, walking over to the phone.

"Hello?" he asked, pulling it to his ear.

"There's a delivery for you in the foyer Sir." Came the voice of the receptionist.

"Right, I'll be right down." He answered, putting the phone down.

Turning, he reached out and shook the sekirei awake, "Come on, there's a delivery for me. It might be a trap, and I'd rather have you with me than risk getting separated."

Kuno rose slowly, rubbing at her eyes, "Huh?"

Harry chuckled, waited for them to properly wake up before repeating himself.

After quickly getting dressed, they made their way down to the foyer, being greeted by the sight of a suit clad man holding a large box. "Delivery for number 95." He said, passing the box to Harry.

With the box out of his hands, he promptly turned and left, leaving Harry blinking in shock. He looked down at the box, shifting it slightly so he was supporting it with one hand, he shuffled back so he was out of view to the people passing through the room, and tapped his wand to it, checking for any traps. Coming up clean, he opened the box, blinking in shock again at what seemed to be over a dozen copies of identical clothes, though in slightly better repair than the ones she was currently wearing. In addition, there was some kind of black plastic card, (a credit card of some kind?) and a mobile phone.

That had just started ringing.

He hesitated for a moment, before reaching to it, snapping it open to answer.

"Hello?"

"Good Morning Mister Peter Potts!" Came a familiar annoying voice, along with a familiar face on the small screen.

Harry groaned.

"Now now, my records show you didn't have a phone, so I graciously gifted you one, you should be offering thanks." The man admonished.

"What do you want?" Harry said instead.

"Right to the point eh? That's fine by me. Number 04 told me that you _were_ the mysterious visitor that came to my building last night. It occurs to me that invading MBI was never against the rules, so I'll overlook it this time, but I warn you, I've completely updated security." The man's glasses seemed to gleam for a moment, "Feel free to try again, but I'd hate for you to die before this little game gets going."

Harry frowned, "Not going to ask me how I did it?"

The man laughed wildly, "Ask you? Of course not, trying to figure it out is much more fun. It's been a long time since I've had to deal with things I don't know about, I should thank you!"

"Uh-huh."

"Anyway, back to the reason for this little call. If you could stop switching names, it would be appreciated. You can't hide from us anywhere in this world, and it's a bit irritating to deal with. As a sign of good will, I've issued an MBI card for the broken bird you have with you."

"…Thanks. I suppose." Harry muttered. It might be nice not to simply have to steal anything and everything.

"Then, if that is all, I wish you good luck." Having said his piece, the annoying guy hung up his phone. Harry stared at the screen for a few seconds before snapping the phone shut, pocketing it.

He reached into the box, taking out the card, handing it to Akitsu, "Here. Take the box back to the room, then go buy yourself some clothes or something." He paused, "Buy a couple of phones too, one for each of you." He glanced around, seeing no one could see them, he flicked his wand, turning Akitsu's oversized shirt into a dress. "I've got some stuff to do, so we'll meet up here later." He glanced at Kuno, "Look after Kuno alright?"

"Understood." Akitsu responded. He grimaced, her empty tone was still concerning, but it wasn't something he could do anything about now.

He placed a hand on Kuno's shoulder, "Kuno, stick with Akitsu, okay? I'll see you two later."

Kuno's eyes watered slightly, but she nodded, "Y-yes, Harry-san."

Harry smiled softly, "Great. Hopefully I should be back in time for lunch, but if not, don't hesitate to eat without me." He said, before leaving the lobby with a dark look. Time to look over the data he'd stolen.

* * *

Disillusioned, he floated up the side of the building. He had to get better at flying, Voldemort was a better wizard than he was, it couldn't be denied, but Harry _knew_ he could be a better flier. Hopefully it might tip the scales slightly.

He had a laptop clutched in his arms. It was, apparently, a pretty good one. Well, he'd used a compulsion charm to make the attendant 'give him a good computer and then erase all trace of it and forget doing it', so it should be a good one. One with all the bells and whistles. Though he'd had to rephrase that when the charm had caused it to be taken literally.

Arriving at the roof, he sat against a nearby wall. Turning the laptop over, he tapped his wand to the battery. That should take care of power. He'd never thought he'd be grateful for Mr Weasley's 'enthusiastic muggle hour'. He then turned it on, and connected his hand to it.

"Now, let's see what we have here." He muttered.

He glared at the screen. Rather than words, or even the Japanese, (which he could just about read) it was all a garbled mess. Had being interrupted destroyed the data? Wait, he vaguely recalled hearing about something, encryption? Making something unreadable without the right program?

"Pfeh, screw it." He tapped his wand to the screen, before pausing, then tapping his hand for good measure. "Reveal your secrets to me!" He intoned.

The mess on the screen seemed to swirl around, until it formed legible writing. In Japanese. He sighed, of course.

He closed his eyes, focusing on his hand, _information about tracking Sekirei_.

He opened his eyes, seeing as the page stopped scrolling. His eyes focused on the images, something about, some kind of, transmitter, inside them? He frowned, nothing had shown up when he was trying to detect spying equipment the previous night. And trying to vanish their insides, especially without knowing what (or where) he was trying to vanish was a recipe for disaster.

He continued looking down, something about, tactical satellite? He frowned, maybe he should get Kuno or Aktisu to translate for him.

His eyes narrowed at the next bit, something about forced termination? He couldn't make heads or tails about what it was talking about. It was concerning. Was there some kind of bomb, or other device? No, that would probably be madness.

Should he get one of the Sekirei to read it? It could just end up scaring them. He weighed the options. From what he read, there was some kind of tracking device placed inside Sekirei, and it couldn't be found from his charms, though maybe some higher level charms might work, if he knew them.

Next, something about a tactical satellite. He scrolled the page back up, looking over the figures. The numbers didn't really mean much to him, but from what he could tell, it could attack from space. Unfortunately, he had absolutely no idea about how he could disable something like that.

Third, there was something about forced termination. He tried to read it, but a lot of it was garbled. He narrowed his eyes. It was at the end of the document, forcibly severing his connection when he was attacked probably had something to do with that.

He was suddenly distracted by an explosion. Turning to look, he saw a girl jumping up from the next roof over, chased by another pair of women, that were apparently able to control lightning. He narrowed his eyes, Akitsu could control ice, lightning wasn't that far removed, and he recalled Kuno's shiver at mentioning lightning users.

He eyed the girl being chased. He shouldn't get involved. He felt a brief stab of pain in his heart, before grinning wryly. He thought he'd turned his heart to stone, but it seemed he hadn't been as successful as he'd hoped. Fine, he'd help her, but he wasn't going to get involved.

As the girl was about to pass him, he grabbed her, pulling her behind the wall he'd been sat against.

"Wha-" she began.

"Quiet." He muttered, flicking his wand, casting a notice aversion charm to hide them.

The two following girls landed on the roof, though he had to wonder at the seeming bondage clothes they were wearing, "Damn it, where'd she go?!" One snapped.

"She was pretty fast." The other said.

"Damn it, she can't have gotten far!" The first snapped, before running and jumping form the roof. The second following with a sigh.

Harry let his charm fall, before turning to the girl, "You okay?" He asked.

The girl seemed to be panting, red faced. "huh, oh, ye,yeah, I'm fine." She said.

Harry nodded, slightly uncomfortable at the way she was staring at him. "Good, that's good."

"Thank you for helping me." The girl said, bowing slightly. "I hope someone like you is my Ashikabi-sama."

Harry looked away slightly, "I hope you find one. Unfortunately, I have to be going."

The girl smiled, Harry didn't mind saying she was fairly beautiful. "I hope we meet again." She said, turning to leave. Harry watched her go in silence. As she disappeared from sight, he turned back to his laptop, continuing to scroll through the rest of the data he'd glossed over.

There was a section on the formation of the bond between Sekirei and Ashikabi. The information was, in his opinion, sorely lacking. It made sense, if Sekirei were a magical race, then such an ability probably couldn't be properly understood through mere muggle means. His mind turned to other magical bonds. Veela bonds from cheap literature (though he hesitated to call it such) aside, there were other magical bonds. Life debts (while poorly understood) were a magical bond, then there was the bond of an unbreakable vow, whatever Voldemort did to connect him to his Death Eaters, House Elf bonds, the bond between a wand and a wizard, the rising idea of some magical connection between mothers and young children, there was a lot of different types of bonds. He idly wondered if this 'Sekirei bond' (as he decided to call it) had any similarities to them.

He chuckled darkly, well, it might be something worth looking into to satisfy his curiosity, but unfortunately he couldn't really see a practical reason to do so.

He continued scrolling. There was something about adjusting Sekirei to fit into the world. Not really much about what that entailed. He mentally listed it as something to look into. It was unlikely Sekirei were enough to tip the scales if he were to fight Voldemort, not with the way the odds had been stacked in his favour.

Sighing, he leaned back, knocking his head against the wall. With the way Sekirei and MBI seemed to talk about fate, he'd hoped they might have an inkling about it, but it seemed they were just in love with the concept. A little disappointing, but not entirely unexpected.

He closed his eyes. There were, essentially three choices in front of him. First, leave. He'd probably have to leave Kuno and Akitsu. He felt his chest tighten, he didn't want that if possible.

Second, destroy MBI. He figured he could do it. Do something to draw out that 'Black Sekirei', apparate to MBI and Imperius its head. Unfortunately, it was unlikely he could get away with just that, he'd likely have to Imperius a whole lot more people, and probably end up killing, or at least ruining, a lot of lives. It also depended on whether there were other Sekirei on that level. Then there was the Sekirei in general. While the battle royal thing seemed stupid, what would the destruction of MBI cause? They'd either be picked up by wizards, or cause chaos as the world came after their power. It had nothing to do with him, but it was something he should at least consider.

Third, participate in the Sekirei Plan. He hated going along with things like this, but it might be a good idea. Some Sekirei had elemental powers, so if they fought, it would be a spectacle. MBI would likely cover it up as much as possible, so it would make a good place to hide out for a while. In addition, it was likely that wizards and witches had somehow avoided becoming involved, he was certain they wouldn't let MBI do as they pleased with an undiscovered magical race, so if it came down to it, he would have an edge. Given he'd already encountered a wizard; it was certainly strange that this was the case. It was likely this wasn't a city with a heavy magical presence, and the wizard before was an anomaly. Which was odd since he was sure this was the capital.

In addition, there was the 'grand prize' for winning, whatever that was. It was unlikely to be useful, but it wasn't like he had any leads in the first place.

Well, there was no rush. He could take his time and decide what he was going to do. He had no idea where to go next, something that could alter fate was as hard to find as he had expected it to be. He looked down at his watch. It was about time for lunch. He should go meet up with the girls.

* * *

Harry stood still as his brain seemed to crash. He'd never really understood the 'struck speechless' thing, at least until now. "You, what are you wearing?" he asked the Sekirei in her newly acquired 'clothes'.

Akitsu looked down. "Clothes." She responded coolly.

Harry reached up and pinched at the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath. Rather than clothes, he thought, they were more like pyjamas. Being held together by chains. Chains. He took another deep breath, taking another look at the Sekirei. She was about half an inch away from 'indecent exposure'. He let go of his nose, releasing a large sigh. He remembered that Sekirei he'd seen earlier that day. The girl in the strange white clothes, and the two chasing her. Did all Sekirei enjoy such eye-catching clothes? He glanced over at Kuno, he guessed not. At least she was dressed normally. He entertained the notion of grabbing her hands, saying something like 'at least you're normal!', but figured it might hurt one of their feelings.

"Did you at least get any other clothes?" he asked.

"I got, several other sets of these." She said with a trace of pride.

"Of course you did." Harry muttered darkly. "Well, whatever. Come on, let's go find some place to eat." He finished, leading the two Sekirei, who followed meekly. He pointedly ignored all the harsh stares and mutterings of the people he passed. He resolved to get her something like a jacket, so she could at least try and avoid attention.

* * *

Harry took them to a nearby restaurant. There wasn't particularly a reason, he hadn't been in town long enough to get a 'favourite' place to eat, and would typically avoid doing anything so predictable and noticeable. It was just a nearby place that struck his fancy.

After ordering their food, they sat in silence. Harry had closed his eyes, trying to ignore the feeling of the cold stares being directed his way by many of the other customers. Hopefully the staff would at least act professionally. Opening his eyes, he saw the waitress coming over with their food. After thanking her, he began eating, his Sekirei following his lead.

He wanted to question why Akitsu brought such clothes, but he couldn't find the words. Well, he figured it would be something like 'I like them' and he'd lose the will to continue the conversation.

His musing was interrupted by the sound of the door opening. He glanced over at the entrance, and idly noticed a familiar sensation. He observed the two entering. The first was an ordinary looking guy. Brown hair, ordinary clothes. Harry dismissed him, dressed like that, he was unlikely to be a wizard. Next to him was, Harry narrowed his eyes. A girl, quite cute, a few bruises on her face. Dressed rather ordinarily, but this sensation in his mind, she was a sekirei. Well, he said she was dressed ordinarily, but, behind her back was, _huh?_ A giant hammer. Harry simply stared for several moments, before shaking his head.

He watched as the two went over two a table. The guy sat down, but when the girl moved to follow him, he slapped her. The sound rang out across the restaurant. He couldn't hear what was said, but the girl meekly fell to her knees on the floor next to him. Harry narrowed his eyes, before shaking his head, nothing to do with him, a sentiment that seemed to be shared by many of the other people there.

He turned back to him meal, trying to ignore the two newcomers. He heard a gasp next to him. Glancing over, he followed Kuno's gaze to where the sekirei was eating from a plate that had been placed on the floor. As he watched, the guy brought up his feet and placed them on the girls back.

"What the hell?" he muttered.

"Oy, Kuno, is that a Sekirei thing?" he quietly asked.

She shook her head, "N,no. Or, rather, maybe?" she timidly answered.

He narrowed his eyes, before turning to Akitsu. "Akitsu, same question."

Akitsu stared at him for a moment. "For a Sekirei, the most important thing, is the Ashikabi. For a Sekirei, if it means not being abandoned by the ashikabi, they would do anything."

He glanced over at the other pair, "Even something like that?"

Akitsu nodded, "A Sekirei becomes bonded to an Ashikabi, it cannot be undone. If they are abandoned, they will never replace that feeling. If it meant that I could become complete, then something like that, is a small price to pay." He could easily detect the longing in her usually flat tone.

He clenched his fist, memories of years long past flashed into his mind.

" _Dobby!"_

" _D-don't worry, great mister Harry Potter Sir! Dobby is be doing this on his own will!"_

" _Why?"_

 _*cough* "Because Dobby be wanting to help Great Mister Harry Potter Sir, because he be freeing Dobby from bad masters, but Dobby wanted to be Great Mister Harry Potter Sir's elf, but he be thinking Great Mister Harry Potter Sir not be wanting a bad elf that be betraying his master, and wanting to be free."_

" _Dobby!"_

 _*cough* "D-don't be being sad, Great, Mister Harry Potter, Sir, for an elf, being useful, is the most important thing. Seeing, Great Mister Harry Potter Sir, struggling to escape, Dobby is be choosing to help, even if it means, not obeying Great Mister Harry Potter Sir, is, is Dobby, being useful?"_

" _Y, yeah, You're great Dobby! The best!"_

" _Dobby is, being grateful for, Great Mister, Harry Potter Sir's words…"_

" _Dobby! Dobby!"_

He felt his heart clench. What would Dobby say to him, if he left this as it was? Damn it, what would the him of back then think if he just stood by and did nothing? Was that the sort of person he had always wanted to be?

His eyes snapped open. He'd probably have to apologise to the sekirei later for this, but he couldn't just let it go.

He finished his meal, all the while not taking his eyes off of the pair across the room. Finally seeing the other Ashikabi-Sekirei pair leaving, Harry got up and followed them.

* * *

"Hey, You!" Harry chased after him, calling out when they were in an out of the way alley.

The man turned around. "Huh?! What do you want, addressing a stranger rudely so suddenly?"

"Isn't it obvious? You're treating that girl rather rudely yourself aren't you?"

The man glanced to his side, where his Sekirei stood. "Oy, don't but into other people's business, but I'll say this ain't an ordinary girl."

Harry stared at him, "She's a Sekirei, right?"

The man's eyes widened, "Oh, so you know? Then, those girls are Sekirei?" he gestured to Kuno and Akitsu, who were stood behind him.

"Yeah, that's right."

"Then you should know that Sekirei are our possessions, right? Even if I do something like that, Yashima won't complain at all you know? Besides, she owes me compensation for dragging me into this Sekirei plan thing."

Harry looked over at the girl, who looked towards the ground.

"Because you didn't just pay for that meal with her MBI card, right?"

"Huh?"

"I see, there's no reason to drag this out. I challenge you to a fight."

The man laughed, "Fine, Yashima will crush you."

Harry smirked darkly, "You misunderstand. I'm challenging _you_ to a fight, for the right of ownership of your Sekirei."

The man's eyes widened again, "are you an idiot? Once a Sekirei is winged, that's it."

Harry narrowed his eyes, "Perhaps. Perhaps not." Almost all other magical bonds had ways of passing on the bond, wands and house elves were both able to be passed on by combat like this, and it wouldn't be strange if others were too. Well, it was just a hunch. If it didn't work, he'd just memory charm this guy.

The man turned his gaze to Akitsu and Kuno. "If I were to win though, you'd have to give me her." He said, pointing at Akitsu. Harry figured that would be the case, she definitely beat Kuno in the looks department.

"Fine. If you win, Akitsu will go with you."

He felt her stiffen behind him, and he brushed his hand against hers, hopefully reassuring her.

"Then, wanna do this now?" the guy asked.

Harry closed his eyes. Empty his mind, focus on magic filling his body. It took about twenty seconds to activate this ability, which was why he couldn't use it in a sudden fight, and he didn't like the side effects that came with heavy use.

He opened his eyes, "Yeah, let's get this over with."

The man reached into his pocket, pulling out a flip knife, "Idiot." He said with a grin, rushing at Harry.

To Harry's eyes, he appeared to be moving incredibly slowly. Harry raised his right arm. As the knife neared him, he slapped the arm aside. The man appeared shocked at the sudden movement, and his eyes widened as the arm that knocked away the knife rushed towards his face, and slammed him into the ground.

Harry kept his eye on the hand holding the knife as he got to his feet and took a step back. The guy made no move. With that force, the man should be passed out. He moved in to make sure, and found the guy still had a pulse. Good, he didn't really want to kill the guy, even if he was such a person. He would probably be fine, though he may want to go to a hospital.

Harry suddenly shook his head as he was assaulted with a throb of mental pain. It felt like his eyes were burning a bit. This was the side effects he had considered earlier.

It was a magic for reinforcing the body. He had picked it up in an Aztec (or possibly Mayan) temple. It enabled the body to operate beyond its capability, including things like processing speed in addition to strength, but the strain it put on the body was, potentially, fatal if overused. Originally, there was a sacrifice (possibly slave, he wasn't that good at translating) that all that strain would be passed too, so the warriors could fight at way past 'peak human'. Unfortunately, he didn't have any slaves or sacrifices he could pass the strain off to.

When he saw the knife, he sped up his mental processing, the strain on his mind causing the headache. If he strengthened his body, it produced physical pain.

That said, when the time came, it was an excellent trump card, albeit one he had to use carefully, so he needed to practice it from time to time.

He shook his head again, forcing himself to his feet. The pain wasn't so bad this time. He looked over at the other Sekirei, Yashima the other guy said, who stepped back fearfully.

"Your name is Yashima, right?" he asked gently.

"Y-yes, Number Eighty-four, Yashima." She called out.

Harry grinned slightly, since saying it like that seemed to be a habit.

"I know what I said earlier, but let me explain." He paused, "I know of a few things that form bonds like Sekirei. I had a, let's say, hunch, that this would create an opportunity." He took a step towards her, who stepped back nervously.

"I'll say this straight out. If you kiss me, then there's a chance, a tiny chance, that you will shift your bond to me." He looked Yashima straight in the eye, "I already have two Sekirei" he heard a slight gasp form Akitsu behind him, "So I'll leave the choice up to you. Stay with that guy, or take that tiny chance and become mine. You decide."

"B-but," she whispered.

Harry glanced towards the guy on the floor. "He's unconscious. Think about what you want. There's a chance it will fail, but if that happens, he won't know." Harry took a few more steps forwards. Yashima made no move, so he quickly was right in front of her.

"I saw in that restaurant, you were crying." He reached forward, cupping a hand under her chin. "I'm a stranger, so I know it's a gamble, but I will say I did this simply because I hate seeing people suffering in front of me. Please, let me help you."

Yashima's eyes were watering, and he could practically feel her trembling. Then, in a sudden movement, she scrunched her eyes shut and pushed her face forward, pressing her lips against his.

For a moment, nothing happened, but then he felt the familiar surge as a pair of glowing blue wings sprang from her back.

After a moment that seemed to stretch for eternity, the light vanished. Almost instantly, Yashima fell forward, forcing Harry to catch her weight, which, with the hammer, was a fair amount.

"Oy, you okay?" he asked worriedly.

Her body was convulsing, but she turned her face upwards, looking straight at him through teary eyes, "I, this warmth, I'm just, so happy." She whispered, as she fell forwards again, unconscious in his arms.

He sighed in relief, before turning his attention to his sekirei. "Akitsu," he murmured "I'm sorry. I promise, I wouldn't have let you go unless you wanted it, but I couldn't just ignore this."

Akitsu didn't say anything, instead just staring at him through her blank eyes.

Taking out his wand, he cast a lightening charm on the hammer, and picked up Yashima. "Akitsu, would you grab the hammer?" he asked.

"Yes." She answered, practically jumping to obey. He dismissed the odd behaviour for now, turning to Kuno.

"Sorry, it seems I've gotten another one." He said gently.

Kuno looked away, "I, I don't mind." The way she held her body made him think she wasn't being entirely truthful though, "I, so long as you make time for me, so long as I can be near you, I won't mind, no matter how many Sekirei join you."

He grimaced, uncomfortable with that kind of devotion, he really felt bad for her after doing smoething like this, especially right in front of her.

"Kuno…" he murmured, reaching out and taking her hand.

Startled by the contact, she looked up at him with wet eyes.

He felt his heart clench somewhat, so he reached up, and pulled her into his chest. "Don't worry, you're mine, right? I'm sorry I couldn't take your feelings into account, but I won't just abandon you."

Geh, this girl. He kept promising her he wouldn't leave her. Each time he had to reassure her, the option of leaving her seemed to become smaller and smaller. He grimaced, was this fate's attempt to put him back on his destined path? Even if it was…

Kuno looked up at him with a smile.

…He didn't think he could fight that smile.

* * *

"Pr-professor Takami!"

"What is it?" the woman in question snapped.

"I-it's Sekirei number eighty-four!"

She frowned, "Eighty-four… that's Yashima, correct? What of her?"

"She, she's just emerged!"

"What?! Show me!"

The man brought up a screen.

"That's… impossible." She muttered.

She pointed at the screen, "Bring up the Ashikabi details." She ordered.

"Y-yes!"

She glared at the picture of the Ashikabi. Name: unkown. Known Alias': Paddy Moon, Peter Potts.

She took out her phone, tapping in the phone number on the screen.

"Professor?"

"Shut up." She ordered as she pressed dial.

* * *

"Master." Came a questioning voice.

Harry looked over at Akitsu who was holding the massive hammer to her chest. Given what had just happened, he could guess her concern.

"I don't know how to form the bond with you." He said bluntly, causing her to flinch, "But with magic, almost anything is possible. I'm certain it'll happen someday, I'll try and think of a way."

He didn't have many books that talked about the subject, and he was pretty sure none were in depth, but he'd look over what he did have. He would no longer consider abandoning the Sekirei with him he resignedly promised himself, which meant crippling MBI or completing this 'game'. He'd prefer to go with the latter, but he'd keep the former option open.

"Thank you." Akitsu's voice was so quiet that he almost didn't hear it.

"Don't worry about it."

The conversation was cut off as his phone suddenly started ringing.

Shifting Yashima's body a bit, he pulled out the phone from his pocket. "Yeah?"

"What did you do?!" came a familiar angry female voice.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He answered reflexively.

"Don't fuck with me! Number Eighty-four, Yashima!"

He looked down at the girl, "What about her?"

"She already had an Ashikabi, what did you do?!"

Harry considered for a moment. "You're the expert, surely you have a better idea than me." He answered flatly.

"It should be impossible for a Sekirei that emerged to do so again, terminating the former bond. I'll have you explain it in detail, or you can come over here and the experience will be much less pleasant."

"Threatening me, is it? Then how about this. Give and take, equal exchange. There's a few things I want to know, tell me about those, and I'll tell you about this."

"You think you're in a position to bargain?" she snapped.

"Pretty much." Harry said flippantly. "Incidentally, the information I want." He glanced to his side, "It's about Akitsu. That guy said he'd let her stay with me, so I'd like to know about her condition. Explain it in detail, and I'll tell you what I did with Yashima."

There was a long moment of silence. "Fine. It may take some time for me to gather the information, so I'll send you a text to meet up and exchange information."

Harry grinned, "It's been a pleasure."

"Save it." The woman said, hanging up the phone.

Harry chuckled as he put the phone back in his pocket. If she had sent troops after him, well. It would have let him stop trying to figure out what to do. Everything became easier when he had a clear target.

"Master…"

Harry looked over at Akitsu, who had a look of hope on her usually expressionless face. "I can't promise anything will come of it, but hold on to hope. Now, let's get back to the hotel." As he turned to leave, he paused.

"Kuno, go through that guy's pockets. Grab Yashima's MBI card." He considered for a moment, "and any cash" He finished.

His eyes turned cold. Since he'd decided to stay in town, at least for now, he'd have to get to work. He had a few tricks that would give him warning if people came for him.

* * *

 **A.N. Truthfully, I wasn't particularly keen on opening up the sekirei steal technique, but when with all the votes for Yashima, and a comment on Harry hooking up with 'broken' birds, couldn't resist. A little concerned Harry ended up a little ooc for this fic with the Yashima affair, if it is, and noticeably so, I'll see if I can redo it somewhat.**

 **So, body enhancement magic. Again, not something I was massively eager for, but when I think about magic he could have picked up in old ruins and lost civilisations and stuff, it is something that pops up. On that note, if anyone has ideas for obscureish magic he might have picked up, please mention it. Note; nothing that results in him clicking his fingers and Voldemort exploding. I'm trying to go with Ye Olde Magic being phased out by wands because wands are better/more convenient/easier, not wizards are dumb.**

 **Hmm, little thing to mention. As shown in chapter 1, Harry is willing to kill when the chips are down, however he'd prefer to avoid it whenever possible.**

 **Little extra note. I actually do like Minato somewhat, which makes him one of the very, 'very', few Harem protagonists I can say that of, but that said, since he almost certainly won't be with Musubi, he won't get any of the rest of the canon crew. It's fairly likely he won't show up at all.**


	4. Chapter 4

**So Miya seems to be the Marmite Sekirei, people either love or hate her. Well, whatever, any hypothetical relationship with Miya is quite far off.**

 **Another point is Minato, some people seem to want him around, others seem happy with him being elsewhere. All I'll say about him here is, his name wouldn't come up if you asked me about protagonists I like, but he's not on a list of ones I dislike, which contains a lot of harem anime protagonists.**

 **I'm not particularly a fan of 'magical cores' as a plot device, but given the canonity of Sekirei cores, I'm utilising the idea here.**

* * *

They made good time back to the hotel. Harry wasted no time in depositing Yashima on the bed, before turning to the others.

"I'm going out for a bit, stay with her." He told them, pointing to the girl lying unconscious.

"Um," Kuno mumbled, "D-do you have to go?"

Harry nodded, "Sorry. Since I'm going to stay here long term, there's a few things I have to take care of."

"T-then, take care." She said, bowing.

"Take care." Akitsu muttered, imitating Kuno's action beside her, the hammer still in her hands.

Harry ruffled their heads, "I shouldn't be long."

* * *

Harry put his wand away, brushing the sweat from his forehead. It was always a little uncomfortable doing what he was. Above him, coiled around the streetlight, a snake slowly disappeared from view. It was a fortunate discovery, when he'd learned snakes could detect the dark mark. He'd never been so glad to be a parselmouth, aside from perhaps when he'd entered the chamber to save Ginny.

Then, using a little shamanism he'd picked up in Africa, he could link their 'minds', though a snake's couldn't really be compared to a human's. So, if they detected the dark mark, they'd instantly inform him. An incredibly convenient piece of magic, to be sure, but there was a limit to how many he could do. That was why he had the most likely places for one of Voldemort's follows to enter the city covered, rather than a city wide net.

Of course, it wasn't that simple, he also had to then make sure his little transfigured snakes wouldn't die from being coiled around a lamppost for God knows how long, as well as stopping them from being detected.

Either way, if Death Eaters came into the city, hopefully he'd know about it. To apparate or portkey, you needed a clear idea of where you were going. Since this city didn't seem to have a strong magical presence, with any luck they'd have to Portkey elsewhere and come over in a less instantaneous, and less direct fashion.

Of course, that didn't help him against non-death eaters, but from his experience, unless he unluckily stumbled across someone again, or did something to advertise his presence, Death Eaters would be the ones to come after him first.

He felt his stomach rumble. He grimaced, apparating over the city, and setting up this net was pretty intensive work. It was no surprise he was already hungry again. Well, the net was up, he could take a break for a snack before moving onto the next phase.

Walking down the street, he saw some kind of street vendor. Acting on a whim, he ordered a bunch of whatever they were selling, walking away with a bagful of food, helping himself as he walked.

If phase one was detecting when an enemy came close, phase two was preparing battlegrounds to his advantage. Ideally he wanted an abandoned building or something, he hated having to fight in an open space. Failing that he could probably make do with some alleyways.

He turned to face an alleyway he was passing, before he was forced to sigh. There was a familiar figure collapsed in the alleyway. White(ish) clothes, pink skirt, brown hair, it was the Sekirei he'd helped earlier.

He walked over to her. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked.

She looked up with teary eyes, "I- I'm so hungry!" she complained.

Harry stared at her dully for a moment, before releasing another sigh. "Here, have some of these." He said, handing over the bag.

The girl helped herself with gusto. "Fank yu" she got out through a mouthful of food.

"Finish your mouthful before you speak." Harry snapped, ignoring the pang of familiarity he felt about the words, and the face that accompanied them.

The girl took a long moment to do so, "Thank you for your kindness." She said, bowing at the waist, "I was really in trouble since I hadn't eaten for a while."

Harry pinched his nose, "Doesn't MBI give you cards to buy food?" he asked.

She laughed slightly, rubbing the back of her head, "I was in such a hurry to meet my Ashikabi-sama, that I sort of left it behind."

There was a slapping sound as Harry's hand met his face. "I was an idiot for worrying." He muttered. "Anyway, I hope you find them." He said, turning to leave.

The girl bowed again, "I'm really grateful for your help, both now and earlier. I truly wish my Ashikabi-sama is as kind as you. I hope we can meet again."

"Yeah, me too." Harry said dismissively. He ignored the heavily flushed face she had. "Anyway, I've got stuff to do."

He left the red-faced sekirei behind as he continued on his way. While he knew his way around a fight, he couldn't refute that his skills weren't as up to par as he might like. Many things he'd picked up weren't as convenient to throw around as the wand magic he knew, so he had to do what he could beforehand to even the odds.

Thankfully, things like transfigured traps and other things wouldn't wear off any time soon, so once he was done, it was just a matter of memorizing where his traps were, and preparing routes to them. Some muggle repelling charms would ensure no one tampered with them. Hopefully anyway, wizards might accidentally stumble across them, and he had a hunch they wouldn't work on sekirei. So, he'd need to put up some simple alarm charms in case there were any accidents.

Before too long, he found himself in front of an estate agents. He smiled to himself, if there were any abandoned buildings, hopefully this was a good place to start looking.

* * *

Harry stretched his arms above his head. He'd only found one suitable building so far. He'd like to prepare at least two or three, so he could easily get to them. Tracking apparition on site was a rather limited skill, so he couldn't expect to be able to draw people in with it. That aside, it was a pretty good location. A large building, that was probably due to be taken down. He'd have to put a stop to any such plans, and he'd laid a few traps around the place.

He smirked to himself, there were some pretty nasty ones he'd picked up. Well, he could hope he wouldn't have to use it. It would depend on whether his countermeasure against Voldemort finding him would work. Of course, he wasn't certain exactly how he was doing it, which did put a bit of extra trouble on the entire thing.

Either way, it was getting dark. It had been early afternoon when he'd stolen Yashima, so it had probably been a few hours since then. It was probably time to be getting back.

Walking into the spacious foyer of the hotel, a quick check told him there were no messages for him. He had hoped that woman would have gotten the files already, but it seemed it wasn't so. Unfortunately, every moment that went past increased his suspicions about it being a trap. He was going to have to trigger that trap though, if it was one.

Well, he'd cross that bridge when it came to it. It was doubtful muggles could do much to seriously inconvenience him. The potential gains, the information about Akitsu, and by extension, the sekirei, as well as forming a link to MBI itself was worth the risk.

He paused outside his room, hesitant about opening the door. He smiled ruefully, just get it over with. While he had no basis for it, he suspected Yashima would be awake, and he actually found himself concerned about how she would take recent events; after all, an Ashikabi was supposed to be an irreplaceable thing for a Sekirei, and this switch would, almost certainly, have some mental effects.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door. Only to freeze when he saw the sekirei. Kuno had a look of worry on her face, as she tried to get Yashima to stand up, from her position of subservience knelt a few feet in front of the door. Of course, Akitsu, who seemed to emulate the strangest things, was knelt beside her, still holding the hammer.

He pinched his nose, "What are you doing?" he asked.

"W-welcome home, master!" Yashima practically shouted, Akitsu repeating the phrase softly beside her.

Harry groaned. "All right, first up, if you're going to act like that, please do it a little quieter, I think someone across the hall may not have heard you, and second, you don't need to call me master."

Yashima lowered her eyes, "As your Sekirei, it is my duty to serve and devote myself to you, to do whatever I can to ease your burdens. What can I call you besides as my Master?"

Harry groaned again as he pinched his nose, "I can take a guess who it was that told you that." He muttered, "Ugh, fine, whatever. Just… don't call me 'Great Master Harry Potter Sir', or anything like that. Please." Just thinking about that crazy little guy hurt, he didn't care for constant reminders.

Yashima looked up with teary eyes, "Yes! Master!" she exclaimed, brushing at her eyes.

"M-master!" Kuno exclaimed.

Harry glared at her, causing her to pull back.

"Kuno, I'm no expert, but I think it's fine if the relationship between Sekirei and Ashikabi is unique to each Sekirei, you don't need to force yourself."

She looked down, "S-sorry." She mumbled, causing him to sigh.

"Look, if you want to call me 'master' you can, but I'd prefer it if you just called me whatever you were comfortable doing."

"H-Harry-san." She mumbled, sneaking nervous glances at him.

He walked over and rustled her hair, "Was that so hard?" he said warmly. Without even looking, he reached over and placed a hand on Akitsu's head as well.

"Thank you, Master." She whispered. Yeah, he wasn't even going to bother with her.

After a moment, he glanced at Yashima, who was knelt in the same spot, looking at him with a despondent look, eliciting yet another sigh from him.

He reached over and stroked her hair as well, taking a hand from Kuno. "Hey, let's introduce ourselves, yeah? I'm Harry. Harry Potter," he introduced himself with his real name without thinking, "it seems I'm now your Ashikabi, let's try and get along, alright?"

"I-I'm Yashima!" she said softly, "Number Eighty-Four, Yashima, the Gravity Sekirei."

He glanced over at the massive hammer, that kind of made sense.

"I, if you need anything, I, I won't hesitate to wash you!"

He looked over at her again, "huh?"

"E-even if my body has known the touch of another man, if you desire it, then I-" she continued.

The hand that was resting on Akitsu's head found its way to the bridge of his nose. "Stop, just… stop." He told her, thankfully making her go silent.

"I can take a good guess that even had we met under other circumstances, that guy and I wouldn't have gotten along, and I can guess that he told you a bunch of things that are, very likely, going to cause me trouble down the line. But for now," he placed a hand under her chin, forcing her to look at him, while considering what to say into the delicate situation, "You're pretty cute, and under normal circumstances, I wouldn't refuse such an offer, but," he paused, "I'd only want to do that, if _you_ wanted to do that, for yourself, not out of any idea that it's something you are obligated to do."

She stared into his eyes, tearing up, "I, I just want to be of use, so you won't throw me away."

He winced, reminded of things he didn't care to be reminded about, "Yashima…" he trailed off.

Whatever he was going to say next was cut off by the phone ringing.

Harry sighed, worst, possible, timing.

"We'll talk about it later." He told her, taking the phone out of his pocket.

He paused before answering it, which name was he using again? Bah, whatever.

He clicked the take call button, "What do you want?" he asked briskly.

"I've got the information you want. I've made a reservation, two hours, I'll text you the details." Came the no-nonsense reply.

"Great, it's a date." Harry replied flippantly.

"Go to hell." The woman said, hanging up.

"heh." He chuckled, "I think I've made a friend."

The phone beeped and vibrated as a message came through. He quickly scanned the message. He didn't recognise the place, but he knew the street, he'd be able to find it.

He clicked the phone shut.

"Yashima, we can talk about that later, but for now," he narrowed his eyes, "that guy has your stuff, right?"

Her eyes widened, "Y-yes, Harry-sama."

He ignored the form of address, "do you remember where he lived?"

She looked to the side, "Y-yes." She mumbled.

"Great. We'll go grab your stuff," and anything else he had worth taking, if anything, "and if there's time, reconvene here. If not, we'll go to the restaurant the MBI woman's at."

"u-understood." Yashima whispered.

Kuno tugged at his sleeve, "I-is that okay?" She muttered, "won't it hurt for Yashima to go back there?"

Harry grimaced, "Probably." He looked down at the meek form of Yashima, gently placing a hand under her chin to guide her to her feet, "But if she's going to be my Sekirei, then unfortunately, she's going to have to be able to confront something like this head on." He said gently, staring into her eyes.

Staring back, Yashima swallowed nervously, before responding, "O-okay, I'll, I'll show you the way." Her eyes flicked to Akitsu, "S-so, can, can I have my hammer back?"

Harry chuckled, "Yeah, it's your hammer after all." He said, cancelling the charms he'd placed on it as she took hold of it.

* * *

"So, it's an… interesting choice in décor." Harry said some time after Yashima had said they'd arrived at her former home.

Yashima seemed to draw in on herself in response.

There was ordinary wallpaper, sure, but over that, well, he glanced at Yashima, he certainly had no idea her former Ashikabi had been into this sort of thing.

Pictures of Yashima, engaging in sexual acts covered almost every inch of the walls. Some of them, well, Harry tilted his head while looking at them, some of them were sufficiently degrading that even he hadn't known people would actually do that sort of thing, and he was no blushing virgin, having roughed it in more than one red light district alleyway during his time on the run.

"And to think, I'd thought I'd seen every degrading thing a person can do to another."

Yashima pulled back again. He idly reached out, ignoring her flinch as he placed a hand on her head, gently stroking.

"Don't worry, I won't think less of you for something like this."

"R-really?" she asked with hope clear in her voice.

"Yeah." He nodded, "'Sekirei live for their Ashikabi', right? You have nothing to be embarrassed about." He told her. That bastard Ashikabi on the other hand, well, he was lucky Harry had no interest in tracking him down to show him the importance of treating people fairly.

"Anyway." He said, "Yashima, grab anything you want to take with you." He felt her nod, so he removed his hand, "Kuno, Akitsu, grab anything that looks like it might be worth having." He instructed, receiving a pair of affirmative answers.

As the Sekirei went off to complete their tasks, Harry activated his eye, taking a look around. He closed his eyes in focus, a whispered spell detecting some spying equipment. A discreet flick of one of his prosthetic fingers caused the small camera to fizz as it was destroyed. Satisfied, he turned his gaze to the room he was in. Given that the occupant seemed to have a fetish for homemade porn…

He focused in on the cd in the device attached to the Tv. He tilted his head, was this one of those 'DVD's' that were apparently replacing videos. Huh. He caught the writing on it. There was an unfamiliar word, but he recognised Yashima's name, causing him to narrow his eyes.

A flick of his wand had the tape, or rather, disc start, confirming his suspicions about the contents. He quickly stopped it, ejecting the disc.

He turned to the other discs on the shelves, quickly grabbing any that might be of similar contents, making a pile. Another swipe of his wand had all the pictures of her come down form the walls, into the pile.

He's keep a hold of these, and someday, Yashima may want to smash them. Might make good therapy, or something. Didn't have time for that now though.

Very quickly, the three Sekirei re-joined him, with piles of things they'd found. He quickly ran an eye over them. Yashima had grabbed all her clothes, Kuno had grabbed what appeared to be a pile of books, and Akitsu… he sighed. "Akitsu, what's that?"

Akitsu looked down. "…Toys." She said.

"Yes, technically that's true, but why do you have them?" he asked, talking about a rather large collection of what might politely be called 'adult marital aids'.

"…" her cheeks reddened slightly, "I, was curious."

Harry sighed again, he was doing that a lot. "Yashima, quick thing I should mention, I'm a wizard who can do magic." He drew his wand, conjuring a trunk, delighting as Yashima's eyes widened, "We'll talk about it later, but you have to keep it secret, okay?"

Yashima nodded furiously, causing Harry to chuckle, she really did remind him somewhat of Dobby… an attractive Dobby… he shook his head in disgust, focus on the task at hand. As he was about to flick his wand, he paused. May as well start trying to do some wandless stuff. It'd been on his to do list for a while.

He lifted his fake hand, focusing on the piles of stuff in the room. After a few moments of concentration, they slowly lifted into the air. "Pack." He commanded, sighing with relief as they slowly drifted into the trunk.

Packed up, he poked at the trunk with his wand, shrinking and lightening it, before placing it in his pocket.

"Alright. Let's go." Tuning to leave, he stopped. "Yashima," he said with a smile, "how do you feel about a little payback?" After all, a little arson never hurt anyone…

* * *

After leaving the burned out apartment, there wasn't enough time to get back to the hotel he was currently using as his base of operations, so they made their way to the restaurant they were meeting the MBI representative at.

Walking into the entrance, he whistled to himself softly. It was a real fancy place. The sort of place he expected people like Malfoy to dine at on a regular basis, that was way too expensive for normal people to eat at.

What, at least appeared, to be incredible paintings (unfortunately not moving, though that was hardly a surprise), plants he was certain had tried to kill him in some jungle or other (or at least a muggle variant), exquisitely crafted chandeliers, all in all, the sort of place he'd never been in.

Asking at the desk, he ignored the look of contempt he received, probably for looking like an ordinary guy, and was directed to a table, his Sekirei following behind him, two of them seeming uncomfortable given the stares they were receiving.

"You're late." Snapped an irritated female voice.

Harry glanced over, recognising the researcher he'd nabbed a card from when he broke into MBI. He managed to hold his tongue from saying something like 'a wizard is never late', settling for a shrug.

"Had some business to take care of." He explained casually, holding out the chairs for his Sekirei.

"A real gentleman." The woman scoffed.

Harry shrugged, "I picked up some etiquette along the way. Somewhere."

The woman pulled a case out of her bag as he sat down himself, sliding it to him. "Here, the information you asked for."

Harry sighed, shaking his head, "No no no, you're supposed to take a brown folder out of your coat pocket, take a furtive look around, and discreetly hand it to me." He joked.

The woman glared at him, "Don't talk like that idiot, or he'll" she began, only to be interrupted by someone leaping over the bar.

"But Takami-kun, the mysterious man is correct, this sort of exchange should be-!"

He was, in turn, interrupted by a wine bottle impacting his face.

"Why the hell are you here!?" the woman, Takami, shouted.

The man got to his feet, "Why, that should be obvious! You set up a clandestine meeting with the most interesting participant in my game, how could I _not_ be here?!" he exclaimed. Loudly.

The woman fell back into her seat, rubbing at her temples. "I need a drink."

Harry could appreciate the sentiment. "So." He said, "Shall we get this underway?" he asked.

"Right," Takami said, leaning forward, "About this incident,"

"How did you trigger a re-emergence of an already emerged Sekirei?" the man jumped in, "It shouldn't be possible, no, it _isn't_ possible, yet such an occurrence has appeared before my eyes! Is it a result of the difference in Ashikabi strength? Can the bond between Sekirei and Ashikabi be damaged? Was the previous emergence a false positive? Could that even be possible!"

Harry stared dumbfounded as the man continued spouting off ideas, until he was whacked over the head by the visibly annoyed woman, "Why do you think I didn't tell you about this meeting?" she snapped, before turning to Harry, "And You, do you have any idea how much work this will create for me? It's only a matter of time until this information slips out, what do you think will happen if Ashikabi find out they might be able to steal others Sekirei? We have to find out what happened, we don't have time for your usual brand of insanity Minaka!"

Harry leaned back considering. He probably shouldn't talk about magic. His eyes moved toward the man. No doubt he'd try and dig into it, and bring the attention of the magicals this way. So how could he explain it then?

"Do you mind if we order?" he asked, pointing at the menu.

"Sure." Takami said though clenched teeth.

Harry looked down the menu, marvelling at the cost. That was some expensive food. People probably ate here just so they could brag that they did.

Anyway, he ordered something that seemed alright, and a glass of wine. He preferred to avoid drinking, he wasn't exactly the best drunk, but he shouldn't end up drinking that much.

"I'm what you might call… an adventurer." He said with a small smirk. "I've seen many things that I can't really explain to you. Some of these things gave me, shall we say, a hunch that might pay off."

Takami narrowed her eyes. "I'll leave that alone, for now, what did you do, exactly?"

Harry drummed his fingers on the table as he considered. "It's called 'rite of conquest', it shows up in a bunch of old cultures." He blagged, "I figured there was a chance, if I defeated Yashima's Ashikabi, then I could claim her, or she could give herself to me."

"Seems like a stretch." Takami said.

Harry shrugged, "After seeing what he was doing, I acted without really thinking about it. I couldn't leave her." He told them, reaching over and squeezing her leg reassuringly.

Takami shifted nervously, "MBI isn't responsible for the relationship between Sekirei and their Ashikabi."

Harry narrowed his eyes, "Oh really. Well, I'll leave such gross negligence aside for now." After all, he really didn't have much right to talk about things after he ran from the fight against Voldemort.

"Now now!" Minaka cut in, "The Sekirei are guided by fate to their Ashikabi, we have no right to interfere with their destined bonds. But what you said was interesting."

Harry supressed the irritation he felt every time someone talked about fate, as Minaka leaned forward with an intense look. "An adventurer, eh? That sounds pretty fun, unfortunately MBI takes up too much of my time to let me go on adventures."

Takami snorted, "I can handle MBI. You just go away somewhere."

Minaka brought his hand to his chest, "Oh Takami-kun, you wound me! How irresponsible would it be for the Game Master to abandon the Sekirei Plan at such a vital stage!"

They were interrupted by the arrival of the food. As the waiters left, Harry brought the wine glass to his lips. Discretely drawing his wand, he pointed it at Minaka under the table. This opportunity was just too good to pass up, "Imperio." He murmured into the glass before placing it back on the table.

"So Minaka, how did you find the Sekirei?" he asked.

Minaka laughed, "Unfortunately, I can't tell you! It would be unfair for all the other participants to give you more information." He leaned forwards, his glasses shining intensely, "But if you want to try and steal the information though…" he trailed off.

Harry narrowed his eyes. It was impossible for a muggle to shake off a properly cast imperius, and a wizard would recognise it. Did he have some way of defeating magic? Wait, there was something niggling at the edge of his mind. Narrowing his eyes, he realised what it was. Minaka wasn't breathing, was he some kind of vampire? No, a vampire would almost certainly know of him, though he could just be hiding it. He focused on his eye, activating its extra functions, before blinking in shock. Was, was he a robot?

He idly swirled his wine glass. Were robots a thing now? Should he bring it up?

He leaned forward. "So tell me, I've noticed you're not breathing."

Minaka's eyes widened, "Noticing something like that, you just keep getting more interesting!"

Harry smiled in response, "Can you explain that though?"

"Of course!" he exclaimed, getting out of his chair to strike a pose, "It's a robotic body that I can remote control!"

"Ugh, I can't believe you actually did that stupid project." Takami said, slapping her face.

"How could I not complete such an amazing project? Robot bodies are the dreams of all men everywhere!" he laughed.

Harry let his eyes drift to the other conversation partner, it was a good thing he didn't start with the woman. He wouldn't have been able to memory charm Minaka as it stood.

He looked back to Minaka, "Another thing I've been wondering," he couldn't stop himself from narrowing his eyes in distaste, "you've mentioned 'fate' a few times," Harry paused, trying to think how to phrase what he wanted to say, "do you have a reason to believe in fate, or is it just… faith, on your part?"

The two of them paused their banter, while Takami looked irritated, Minaka regarded him with an expression of curiosity, "Interested in fate, are you? I got the impression you found the idea distasteful."

Harry stared for a moment, before looking down at his fake hand. Silence dragged on for a moment longer, before he looked back up, "Do you think fate can be changed, Minaka? Or are we slaves, struggling futilely against some greater power that forces us to dance to its tune?"

Minaka leaned forward, steepling his fingers. "An interesting question, much more philosophical than anything I was expecting, I must admit." In spite of being a robot, or whatever, the man's eyes seemed to flash with interest, "I believe that it is possible to shape fate, and that you can obtain this power by completing my game."

The glass shattered in Harry's fake hand. "Damn it." He cursed, glancing down at the wine now covering his shirt. He'd have to deal with that later.

"However, even if you break into MBI, and steal all the information we have, you won't find out about this." Minaka warned, a smile on his face, "but it leads me to a question I have. That hand, it may be better than what MBI can currently produce," Minaka, said, his current body meaning Harry wasn't so sure it was true, "Where did you get a hold of something like that?"

Takami cut in, "I'm fairly certain there are no companies that can produce something like that either. MBI would know about it."

Harry couldn't stop the grin appearing on his face, "Clearly MBI doesn't know about certain organisation that make a point of hiding in the shadows."

Takami's face morphed into a frown. There was a tense silence, Harry felt his Sekirei tense up beside him.

"We've gone off topic." Minaka suddenly said, "We were talking about number eighty-four."

"What's to talk about?" Harry countered, "Unless you want to try and transfer her back?" He felt Yashima let out a whimper as she stiffened beside him.

Minaka held up his hands placatingly, "No, no, no, nothing of the sort, I assure you! You said you had a hunch you could NTR her, does your hunch think anyone could do it to any Sekirei?"

Whatever he was referencing went over his head, but he got the gist of the man's enquiry, so he shrugged in response. "Honestly? Not sure. Whether an Ashikabi could do it, well, no idea." It may have been him being a wizard having an effect, or not. Couldn't say. "I believe the major thing required was Yashima herself," he said, idly stroking her thigh, not noticing her squirm beside him, "her heart felt that her Ashikabi wasn't fulfilling her requirements, and truly wanted to bet on the chance that another Ashikabi might provide them for her." He'd be damned if he actually began talking about the power of love. "If I attempted to bond with a sekirei who is happy with her situation, I don't think anything would happen."

"Fascinating." Minaka mused, deciding against sharing his thoughts.

Takami sighed, "I won't complain, I wasn't particularly happy with Yashima's situation, but I'll advise against repeating the feat. If other Ashikabi find out, you'll likely become a target, whether for finding out how you did it, or preventing you from doing it to them."

Harry shrugged, uninterested, "They can try."

Silence fell again.

"Alright." Harry let his hand fall to the table. "I'll look over the info you gave me later, but I'd like to ask about it."

"Why?" Takami asked with a frown, "You have everything we know about her status."

Harry smiled ruefully, "I'm not that smart, really, I pick things up faster hearing and doing than by reading."

Takami shrugged, "Fine, whatever. To put it simply, due to incompetence on the part of her adjuster, she spontaneously caused herself to emerge. As such, she cannot become bound to an Ashikabi, and is incapable of utilising her Norito."

Harry nodded, "Right, two questions, for now, at the risk of asking an overly simple question, what does an adjuster do, and what is a 'Norito'?"

Takami groaned, while Minaka sniggered, "Adjustments are necessary, since Sekirei are too powerful. In order to even have a chance of fitting in with humans, and not to adversely harm humans they interact with, limitations have to be placed on them. If you repeat the action taken to cause an emergence, then they can use an elevated amount of power. The Norito is a chant that can be invoked in that state to unleash a massive amount of power that is normally sealed by the adjustments." She explained.

Harry nodded along. That made sense, even wizard spells were stronger when the incantation were spoke; that idea, that of words having power was almost universally prevalent. He glanced over at the Sekirei. Ignoring Akitsu's despondent look for now, he couldn't imagine them having that sort of power. Well, he'd have to find somewhere discreet to test their power.

"What do you mean when you said she caused herself to emerge?"

Takami hesitated, while Minaka simply watched in amusement, "Truthfully, we're not entirely sure." She confessed, "Sekirei have a 'core', bonding with an Ashikabi stabilises this 'core'. Akitsu's 'core' has become sufficiently stable that it isn't open to such a bonding."

Akitsu's expression didn't change, but Harry could feel the depression wafting off her, so he reached over and placed a hand on her thigh reassuringly. The existence of a core was interesting, it made him consider a possible comparison to wizards due to the existence of a magical core. While he wasn't particularly familiar with bonds (though even without the Sekirei, Voldemort ensured it was a topic he was mildly interested in) he was somewhat familiar with cores.

"Any other questions?" Takami asked.

Plenty, Harry thought to himself, but none he particularly cared to ask, "Can you get me information on both Yashima and Kuno?" he asked, "I'd like to see what differences there are between them."

Takami looked towards Minaka, who shrugged, "Fine. I'll have them delivered." She said resignedly, turning to get started on her meal. Harry followed suit, his Sekirei joining the meal as well, though Yashima seemed a bit uncomfortable with it. Given what he'd witnessed in the restaurant, she likely wasn't used to eating at a table with people. Harry smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring manner at her.

They finished their meal, mostly, in silence. Minaka, from time to time, began babbling about inconsequential things, it seemed the man was incapable of sitting quietly. Fortunately, he was reined in by Takami.

Harry had to admit, it was the best food he'd had in a while.

* * *

After finishing the meal, they returned to the hotel room, though they'd had to wait since Yashima had wanted to discuss something with Takami. Thankfully, it seemed the MBI people weren't interested in small talk, a state of affairs that suited him fine. He had wanted to go over the data he'd been given about Akitsu.

Looking it over, he had to admit it was filled with technical talk that he could barely follow, but enough of it meshed up that he could draw the parallels to wizard cores, and see where differences were.

As such, all he could have regarding Akitsu were theories, or perhaps 'educated guesses' were a more apt description.

Given that he'd been told she'd essentially triggered her own emergence, there was a, admittedly very small, chance that if he beat her one on one, in a similar manner as to when he'd poached Yashima, that she could transfer herself to him in the same way.

He'd call that 'Plan B', he'd have to check out her power some time to see how feasible it was.

He leaned back in his cahir, glancing over to where Akitsu was sat, next to Yashima and Kuno. While the latter two were absorbed in watching Tv (sneak glances at him aside), Akitsu was straight out staring at him with inscrutable eyes.

The feelings that were in those eyes, well, he could more or less imagine them, he guessed.

From what he could tell, Sekirei, like magic, were all about 'heart', the power of feelings, emotions. Since, from what he could tell, she was only 'mostly stable', as opposed too other bound Sekirei who were 'fully stable', there was probably some wiggle room. If her heart truly desired to be bound, to entrust her everything to another, and that person truly wished to accept that everything, to take everything she had to give, then it might trigger a proper emergence.

He closed his eyes, snorting in derision, it was a long shot, even for him. Both ideas were. His lips quirked in amusement, Voldemort and him were fairly similar, but it was times like these, where the option he and the Dark Lord would differ on which would be Plan A or B, that made the similarities seem minor.

He opened his eyes, staring softly at Akitsu's face. Should he outline the ideas to her? If they fought, she'd have to attack him with everything she had, she couldn't throw the fight. If his guess was right, she would hate doing that. Well, it was hard to tell how she felt, especially since they hadn't known each other that long.

As for the second… well, telling her might do more harm than good. The level of trust required, it took time to develop, perhaps for her, but certainly for him. Not being able to get to the requisite level of trust in a timely manner might adversely affect the effort.

He drummed his fingers on the small table he was sat at, as another idea occurred to him. He suddenly got up, walking over to Aktisu. He gently reached out, cupping her chin with his hand, "May I kiss you?" he asked quietly.

He ignored the squeak that came from one of the other Sekirei sat on the couch, focusing only on Akitsu.

She seemed to stare into his soul with her inscrutable grey eyes. A tense moment of silence passed, before she slowly closed her eyes, a whispered "yes" her only verbal response.

He heard two people take sharp breaths as he gently lowered his lips to hers, mildly surprised by the cold feel of them against his.

He kept his eyes open, so he easily saw the crest adorning her forehead softly glowing, and the harsh blue light seeming to emanate from her back.

But as soon as it began, it was over. The light vanished, leaving only the despondent form of Akitsu, slowly opening eyes, with her depression clear within them.

"I'm sorry." She whispered.

Harry grimaced, gently rubbing her head, "Don't be, I was fairly certain it wasn't going to work." Seeing her somehow look _more_ depressed at that, he continued, "However, your body clearly _tried_ to react, there's almost definitely a chance that, in the future, we might manage something."

Giving a last ruffle of her hair, he returned to his chair, intending to dig out some of the books he had in his possession that hadn't been lost, destroyed or abandoned somewhere along the way. There should hopefully still be one that discussed core theory.

He couldn't stop himself from smiling as, after he was engrossed in his research, Kuno, followed a bit later by Yashima, had gone over and were embracing Akitsu, murmuring words of encouragement and sympathy to her. It was nice to see them getting along. He'd have to consider some way of letting them talk with people. Unlike him, they were as young as they looked, meeting people, whether for good or ill, was important for their development as people. That was probably as true of Sekirei as it was of humans.

* * *

Harry's eyes snapped open again. It took a moment to figure out what was alerting him, and he narrowed his eyes in confusion at the realisation. Someone had triggered one of his prepared battelgrounds.

He got up from his chair, still fully clothed. He idly flicked his wand, packing all his belongings into his trunk, shrinking it and returning it to his pocket. He glanced towards the bed. It was filled with the three nude forms of his Sekirie. He was aware they had put on some lingerie before going to bed, it seemed at some point they had, somehow, shed it. He eyed their forms appreciatively for a moment, before idly shaking his head. While they certainly were attractive, he shouldn't waste time. Closing his eyes in focus, he pictured the prepared location, and with a soft pop, he vanished from his room, reappearing a street or so away, walking towards it, focusing on his surroundings. There was, after all, a decent possibility this was some kind of trap, though he had no idea how it would have been prepared so soon, since no one should know where he was yet.

Arriving at the abandoned building, he paused, carefully regarding it. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Activating his eye, he looked through the walls, blinking in shock, before slapping his face again. This was unbelievable. He pushed open the door, strolling in whilst shaking his head. "You really have no luck, do you?"

The building was a mess. Several walls had been knocked down, blast marks from explosions marking the ones standing, there were shattered blades scattered around the room, and in the center, a familiar figure, bound and trussed up in thick vines, digging into her skin, visible due to the tattered state of her previously white clothes.

The girl blinked in shock, "Ah! It's you again! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Harry shook his head wryly. "Would you mind telling me what you're doing here?"

"Unfortunately, I hadn't had any luck in finding my Ashikabi." The girl pouted at this, "and since it was getting cold, and I don't have any money, I needed a place to sleep." Her face lit up, "But when I came in here, there were blades coming straight at me! It was dangerous, so I broke them!"

That accounted for the broken blades that should spring out of the walls.

"Anyway, after that, I went further inside, and I found these adorable cuddly bears!" Her eyes seemed to light up in joy remembering them, "But then they exploded! I was fine, but it ruined my clothes!" she complained.

"Of course you were." Harry muttered.

"Anyway, after that, I thought that maybe I should find somewhere else to sleep, but then this plant 'phwooshed' out of the ground and grabbed me!" she laughed nervously, "I pulled and pulled, but it just got tighter. I'd really appreciate it if you helped me out of it though."

Harry sighed, eyeing the girls tattered state. Those vines 'should' be able to restrain giants. They'd tear apart an ordinary person if they grabbed hold of them like that. Honestly, he had to take a bunch of precautions to keep them in his trunk, but they were worth the risk. How ridiculously durable were Sekriei, or was it just this one?

He sighed, looking at the vine. It only produced seeds whilst feeding on its victims. In other words, he'd have to let it kill the Sekirei to get a new one. He couldn't do that to some unlucky passer-by, unfortunately. He'd have to write this one off. He paused, as he was about to draw his wand, better not to let her see it.

He walked around her, before slashing at the vine, severing it into pieces, the Sekirei falling to the floor in a heap.

"Owies." She complained, rubbing at her head. When she saw him, her face lit up again, "Thank you for saving me! Both this time and before, I really hope I find an ashikabi like you sometime soon." She fidgeted, her face going red, causing Harry to grimace.

From what he understood, her body was telling her he was a possible ashikabi for her, but, unfortunately for her, Harry had no intention of allowing that. His current Sekirei were pretty much unavoidable, given the circumstances, but he wouldn't wish being bound to him on anyone. Not until he found a way to overcome the hand fate had dealt him.

"Well, chin up." He said, "Keep looking, I'm sure you'll manage it soon."

The girl bowed again, "Thank you again, I'll be sure to repay you some day." She said, preparing to go.

"Wait." Harry sighed, eyeing the red marks his trap had dug into her skin. "Close your eyes." The girl tilted her head, before acquiescing to his request. Harry took the opportunity to quickly heal the marks as best he could, and to repair her clothes. "There you go."

The girl shuddered as his magic crashed over her. "You feel so warm." She murmured, before opening her eyes. They widened as she saw her again pristine clothes. "Wow, that's amazing!"

Harry chuckled, "go on, off with you." He said with a soft smile, watching the girl take off.

He turned back to the building with a resigned sigh, time to redo some of the traps as best he could.

* * *

He was tired when he apparated back to the hotel room. It had taken longer to repair the building and traps than he had anticipated.

He ignored the Sekirei still laying on the bed, stripping off his clothes as he went towards the shower. True, he didn't _need_ to shower, cleaning charms could suffice, but the experience of a bath or shower, well, it was relaxing, more so than any cleaning charm could prove to be.

He allowed the water to wash over him, his skin tingling against the warm liquid flowing down his body.

"Damn it." He slammed his fist against the wall of the shower, further irritated by the lack of sensation coming through the prosthetic. Was it really okay to stay here? No matter where he went, it always ended the same; in flames, chaos, and misery, for all involved. He wanted to stay with the Sekirei, he hadn't known any of them long, but they cut straight to his heart in a way he hadn't felt, in a long, long time.

He'd resolved not to think about this, but… that girl could have died, simply from his decision to stay in the city. While he liked to think he was helping the girls in the other room, he knew full well no happy ending was guaranteed at his side.

But… the way Minaka talked about fate… it was easy, so easy to dismiss him as a crazy muggle, but… what if there was some way, here in this city? If there was… well, he'd killed for less. He opened his eyes, cold, he'd have to stay, at least for now. And he couldn't make careless moves.

He stiffened as he felt someone wrap arms around him from behind, apparently he'd been to lost in thoughts. His eye rolled around in its socket, glancing at the body behind him, before returning to its ordinary position. "Yashima." He greeted.

"Harry-sama." She whispered into his back.

He could feel her pressing up against his back. He turned around, letting her bury her face in the crook of his neck. "Yashima… I told you, you don't need to do this." He murmured.

He felt her tense against him. "I… I do." She whispered.

There was a moment of silence, before she looked up at him. He felt his heart clench, since it looked like she had tears in her grey eyes, though it may have been the shower water.

"I-I don't want you to throw me away." She repeated her words from earlier.

"I won't throw you away." He said gently. He tentatively wrapped his arms around her, "Just… smile. Just, let me think, if only for a moment, that someone's life is better for me being in it."

She shook her head, pulling away slightly, before pressing her lips to his, her bright wings of light brightening up the small room. After a moment, she pulled her lips away, "I-I talked with Professor Sahashi. I, she told me," she took a deep breath, "Sekirei, we, our bodies, they, change, adapt, to our Ashikabi. The amount is small, though different for each Sekirei, but, the things Junichi-sama did to me," she looked down, "I, I began to enjoy them." She whispered, "my body, it adapted to him, so it would enjoy what he did to me, so my body would crave it."

She looked up again, and he noticed the red flush to her cheeks, the arousal lurking in her eyes, "I, even though my body's like this, please, make my body yours," She whispered.

Harry cut her off by gently pressing his lips to hers, "Yashima, you don't need to say another word. I'll help you whenever you need it."

And she smiled at him, and he felt his heart seem to burst.

* * *

 **A.N. So, that's a wrap. As per usual, a bunch of things I'm not really satisfied with, but, were I to try and make a chapter I had no complaints about, I'd never post anything. Again, thanks for all the feedback, please continue to review, I do consider everything that gets posted.**

 **Stuff with Yashima got a bit dark, and Harry got a bit angsty. Ah well, I think it somewhat fits.**

 **To anyone disappointed by the ending cutting off where it did, I'll say straight up I don't write sex scenes into my stories, but if the mood strikes me, I may write and post them elsewhere.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A.N. So, I had a few reviews claiming Harry was something along the lines of a weak ass bitch, and that this somehow ruined the story, and that he would utterly fail at making any difference in the Sekirei side of the crossover. I'd like to take a moment to address this, even if I have my doubts those people would be reading five chapters in.**

 **Harry has had one fight with a wizard, and it (mostly) occurred off screen. That wizard was a complete unknown, and Harry wasn't doing too well, before he somehow won.**

 **Consider this; The wizard being unknown, and the fight taking place off screen, mean there is no way to know what Harry's level of skill is, only that he** _ **can**_ **'lose' to 'ordinary' wizards. A single loss can be chalked up to dozens of things; it doesn't say much about the characters involved.**

 **Well, that was my intention, anyway. Not sure how well I portrayed it. Also, I don't like writing fight scenes. I'm rarely happy with what I produce whenever I try it. So that may have been part.**

 **Secondly; don't underestimate what even a 'weak bitch wizard' could potentially do. As one reviewer has said, one Fiendfire and its bye-bye MBI tower. And even Draco's minions can cast that.**

 **Also; anyone who's read any of my stories before should know this one, but I'm not writing wizards as a bunch of inbred morons that get ridiculed by everyone and everything. Seriously, if you want that, there are a bunch of stories even in this crossover section that you'd probably enjoy more.**

 **So, any reviews in the vein of, quote, "weak-ass, lame and pathetic magical UK" will henceforth be disregarded. There is not a single reference in canon to the UK being worse than any other country that I can recall. So far as I know, that is a fanon. Nothing wrong with it, even as much as it has come to irritate me, until people start telling me that 'that is how it is' when commenting on my story. Note; I'm specifically talking about a comparison. How good the UK magical world is, is irrelevant here. But, I'll leave that there.**

 **As for the few people who complained about Voldemort** _ **not**_ **being a pathetic piece of crap, people holding an idiot ball is prevalent in** _ **every**_ **franchise. Probably. When a villain failing comes down to "Hero Luck" and "Deus Ex Machina", you really can't say they were that pathetic. That aside, since those people typically complain that Harry isn't a God in mortal form, I can't see why making drastic alterations to Harry is apparently fine, but a change to Voldie is unacceptable.**

 **I'll tell you this one for free,** _ **this**_ **main villain is more Tom Riddle than Lord Voldemort. Hopefully.**

* * *

Harry gently lowed Yashima into the bed, frowning. Whether due to the things she'd accepted during her time with her previous ashikabi, or due to the mental shock at changing her bond to him, she seemed to view herself as being somehow 'dirty', that being with him the way she had was somehow dirtying _him_.

Added on to that her apparent belief that enjoying those sort of activities was somehow wrong, and her near desperation to hide her reaction to his actions, well, he could guess, but maybe he should watch her videos, just to get an idea of how to help her with her issues. He rubbed at his face in irritation, he really had no idea how to deal with that sort of thing, and where on earth did the powers that be think that tossing her his way would be in any way a good idea, he could barely keep himself together! He supposed he should just try and accept her, encourage her… beyond that? Who knew.

Other than that… Sekriei adapted to their Ashikabi… what, exactly, did that mean, besides the obvious? He idly stroked the hair out of her eyes as she slept peacefully, the reason she normally wore a headband clear. He grimaced as a thought occurred to him. He'd really need to ask someone at MBI if Sekirei could get pregnant. That was a hassle he really didn't need. He had stopped himself from casting a contraception charm. No idea how it would react to a sekirei's physiology.

He straightened up with a sigh. He should get some sleep of his own. This was another complication, but, well, he should focus on what he was doing. His eyes flicked over to Kuno, then Akitsu. The former reminded him somewhat of Neville; what with the low self-esteem, and such. Like his friend, there had to be some way to bring out her potential. Given he was planning on keeping them around for a while, well, it would be a load off his mind if they could take care of themselves.

That led him to the other body on the bed. He had to get a grasp of what she was capable of; the only thing he knew of Sekirei was that fearsome sword wielder, the one Akitsu called the Black Sekirei, those lightning twins, though he only had a vague idea as to their capability, and that other girl, the one in white, or rather, the durability she showed.

Find some abandoned place, or something. Probably best when no one was around. Late night or very early morning. He checked his watch. He had time for two or three hours sleep, if he wanted to do it this morning. He'd operated on less. He nodded to himself, that was the first step.

Other than that… well, he had some thoughts about increasing his own combat power. He hadn't been able to act on them until now, and honestly, it had a chance of heavily damaging his hand beyond his ability to repair, but… he had seen it, at some of the places he'd been. A mark, left by Voldemort when he'd travelled the world. Not everywhere he'd been, thanks to some miracle, but enough that he wasn't sure the tricks he'd picked up would be enough. It was… it had to be worth the risk.

He shook his head furiously. No time to think about this, nor did he have time to let thoughts plague him from getting what little sleep he could. He cast an alarm charm, before turning his wand on himself. It was a poor substitute, but he should try and get some rest. With a focused thought, a jet of crimson light led him to oblivion's embrace.

* * *

 _A familiar landscape. He'd know it anywhere, even after all this time. The edge of the forbidden forest at Hogwarts. Even now, it felt like home._

 _He looked ahead, it was all he could do._

 _There were figures in the clearing he was positioned before. The intimidating visage of the Dark Lord, Voldemort. The faceless ranks of his Death Eaters, a threat that could be anyone, anywhere._

 _And a final figure, that of his own, the seventeen year old Harry Potter whom bore a near identical appearance to his own standing among them. Words were exchanged, words he couldn't hear. He didn't need to hear them, he knew how this played out, he'd seen it countless times before._

 _There was a green flash as Voldemort raised his wand, and the figure of Harry Potter fell, lifeless, to the ground._

 _From his position, across from it, he was filled with a sense of rightness, that this was how it should be._

 _Had he eyes, he would have closed them. "Tch." He grunted, sick of the familiar dream, and the sensation of rightness. He focused on his occlumency exercises, and forced the dream to dissipate._

* * *

 _The area was shrouded in darkness._

" _Where are you?" came a feminine voice._

 _He glanced down, he was veiled with darkness, matching the area around him, a perfect camouflage._

" _My Ashikabi-sama, where are you?" the voice repeated._

 _He glanced over towards it, the familiar form of the unlucky sekirei he'd met a few times greeting him._

" _Where are you?" she repeated desperately, running around like a puppy._

 _This was a dream. That was clear to him. He had experience with visions, and repelling influences from his sleeping mind. It was odd that it happened again, so soon after the last vision. But; getting into his head, that was some mental power. Some kind of sekirei ability? God knew he had had trouble with other races mental abilities before, he could adapt._

 _He closed his eyes, willing the dream to end._

* * *

His eyes snapped open in response to his alarm charm. A quick tempus charm told him it was the right time, not another thing like what had happened to that Sekirei. That dream, it was somewhat concerning. He could actively try and prevent such visions, he supposed.

He snarled as he considered the first dream. It had haunted him for a while. He had his thoughts, as to what it meant, but it wasn't anything good. No use dwelling on it. He had things to do.

He groaned as he got to his feet. He was used to it, but, looking at the Sekirei, part of him longed to actually sleep in a proper bed for once in God knew how long.

He walked over to the bed, slowly reaching forward and shaking Kuno, "Hey, wake up." He murmured.

The girl groaned, slowly sitting up, stretching her arms, "W-what time is it?" she asked groggily.

"Early." Harry replied, "Now get dressed."

Kuno looked down through lidded eyes, before looking back at him. She repeated this several times, her eyes widening, "Kyaah!" she shrieked, her arms coming across to cover her chest, "D-don't look!"

Harry staggered back, hands covering his ears from the enhanced scream. "great, please tell me I put up silencing charms around the room."

He looked over to the other Sekirei, whom had woken up from the noise.

"Get dressed!" he told them, barely hearing himself over the sound of the ringing in his ears.

"I-I'm sorry!" he thought he heard Kuno yell, her head bowed.

"Don't worry about it!" he shouted back. He winced again as the ringing sound assaulting his senses hadn't let up. Wait a minute, he had something for this, some charm that should fix things. He cast his mind about for a moment, before recalling the spell. Drawing his wand, he cast it, sighing in relief as the world became peaceful again. Glancing over at the other two Sekirei, he cast it at them too.

"Th-thank you, Harry-sama." Yashima whispered, unable to meet his eyes. He grimaced, seriously, he had no idea how to deal with her issues.

"Ah, yeah, thank you, Harry-sama." Akitsu echoed.

"Don't worry about it." He muttered, hoping they wouldn't be asked to leave. He had better things to be doing than trying to track down everyone who would be in need of confounding.

"S-sorry." Kuno mumbled again.

"I said not to worry about it didn't I?" Harry snapped, causing Kuno to pull back. He sighed again, feeling like he'd kicked a puppy, "Sorry. It's early, I'm cranky, but I shouldn't have snapped at you." He rubbed her head gently, bringing a smile to her face. Honestly, he was starting to understand just how… young, the Sekirei seemed to be.

"Now, everyone get dressed." He told them, clapping his hands for emphasis.

He considered places to go as they got dressed, Kuno in her familiar blue blouse and skirt, Yashima in her dress, and Akitsu in whatever the hell her clothes were meant to be. Honestly, why did Sekirei seem to have just multiples of one outfit?

He shook his head, a meaningless thought. Now, somewhere discrete, perhaps a park or construction site? He could… probably repair any damage they cause. He nodded to himself, he thought he had a good place in mind.

Looking around, he saw that they were dressed. He momentarily cursed that he could only side along apparate one person, before slapping his head gently. "Akitsu," he called out.

The girl looked up at him, "What is it, Master?"

He reached out, grabbing hold of her arm. "We're going ahead; I'll be back for you two in a moment." He told the other Sekirei in the room.

Yashima looked down, "U-understood, Harry-sama."

Kuno was a bit more upbeat, "T-take care, Harry-san!"

He shook his head in amusement, such simple words, but…

He and Akitsu disappeared with a crack.

* * *

Harry clapped his hands to draw the girls' attention to him as they marvelled about the awesomeness (if unpleasantness) that is apparition.

"Alright, I've put up a spell that should keep the mug- non-magical's away. Hopefully there aren't any other wizards here, and it won't keep away Sekirei either, but I can't really do much about that." He'd also put up a charm to stop sound escaping, so they were pretty discreet right now.

"U-um, Harry-san?" Kuno asked hesitantly.

"what is it Kuno?" he replied.

She shivered happily, with a soft smile on her face, that, for the life of him, he couldn't quite grasp. "Y-you don't want to meet other wizards?"

Harry hesitated, a grimace forming on his features. He… he had to tell them, at some point, but… well, he didn't really want too. "That's, well, ask me again later. I'll tell you about it."

Kuno looked down, "O-okay."

"It's not something I find, shall we say, pleasant, to talk about." He amended, "but, I suppose it _is_ something you have a right to know.

"Anyway! The reason we're here, is so I can get an understanding of your power." His lips twitched in amusement, "We already had a demonstration of Kuno's" the girl stiffened in embarrassment, "but I want to see both of yours, Akitsu, Yashima."

"Understood." Akitsu responded coolly, turning to face away from him. She raised her arms slightly, and, without any other warning, spikes of ice seemed to thrust out of the ground, in a line leading away from her.

Harry whistled, that was pretty impressive, walking over, he pressed his finger against the tip, pulling back at the piercing pain, revealing a drop of blood emerging from the tip of his finger. Pretty sharp too. Turning to face Akitsu, whose face was still as impassive, he asked, "Anything else?"

She closed her eyes. Then, crystals of ice appeared in the air beside her. As she opened her eyes, a crystal shifted into a much more spear like shape, and rocketed forward towards a nearby tree, slamming into it with a thud.

Harry nodded appreciatively. That was fast. If he wasn't focused, he doubted he'd have been able to stop it. That said, if he had been fighting her, he was confident he'd have been able to either dodge or block it with a shield charm. To put it bluntly, making the ice sprout from the ground like daisies was more dangerous.

Harry nodded, "Alright." He waved his wand, altering the humidity of the air around them. "Can you try now?" he asked.

Akitsu made no verbal response, instead repeating her earlier gesture, propelling another shard of ice at a nearby tree.

"Was that any harder than before?" he asked.

She shook her head. "It was, just as easy." She replied.

Harry considered it for a moment. It seemed her ability was unrelated to the availability of moisture. Well, figuring out the underlying mechanic probably wasn't worth the effort. He was no theorist, he should probably just settle for figuring out what they were capable of, and go from there.

He nodded again, "Okay, Yashima, you're up."

The girl stepped up as Akitsu fell back. She hefted her hammer, closing her eyes, probably some kind of concentration improvement.

"Haah!" she yelled, bringing her hammer down.

Harry's eyes widened as the ground shook, a crater proof of her destructive power.

"I-I change gravity. The hammer feels lighter, almost weightless," she explained, "b-but, it doesn't change the power the hammer hits with. T-the scientists said it had something to do with the difference between w-weight and mass."

Harry considered, well, he didn't know enough about science to comment on that, but saying 'because magic' was probably enough.

"Is it just your hammer? Or can you do it with yourself?"

Yashima squirmed, "I-I don't know." She whispered.

Harry sighed, reaching toward her head, ruffling her head. "Hey, they're your powers, you can figure them out at your leisure." He saw her smile beneath his hand.

"Anyway, let's try that norito thing Takami mentioned."

He noticed Akitsu avert her eyes as Yashima squirmed, "O-okay!"

The girl raised her face, opening her mouth presenting her tongue. Harry just stared at her, before sighing. Yet another reason to curse that guy.

Perhaps thinking he was unsure how to proceed, Yashima reached forward, grasping his hand, bringing it to her face, inserting his fingers into her mouth as she worked on them, a lascivious look on her face. Harry just stared, partly in shock, as her face got more and more salacious as she continued.

He pulled his hand back, cupping it under her chin. "H-Harry-sama…" She shivered at the feel of his prosthetic. He leaned down, catching her lips with his own. Yashima's eyes closed, moaning gently into his mouth.

He was surprised at the way she submissively encouraged him to dominate her mouth with his tongue, though he really shouldn't have been. He watched as her cheeks flushed from the way he was claiming her, her azure wings spreading from her back.

After a long moment, he pulled away from her, amused at the way she leaned after him, trying to prolong the kiss.

He smiled at her as reason returned to her eyes, blinking rapidly as she pulled back, face turning down in embarrassment.

"S-sorry." She mumbled.

Harry shook his head, still smiling, "Don't worry about it. Now, why don't you show me what you can do?"

She mumbled acquiescence. She closed her eyes as she tightened her grip on her hammer. " _The hammer of my pledge! Shatter the enemy of my ashikabi!"_

A glow surrounded her, and she leapt into the air. Harry watched as she reached the peak of her leap, and rapidly accelerated back to the ground. As she approached the ground, she began to sing her hammer, "Gravity Hammer!" she yelled, slamming the hammer into the ground.

Harry had begun to wonder whether being found by that Minaka caused them to yell out attack names, or whether it was an incantation. Unfortunately, the shaking ground from the impact swept his feet from under him, falling to his hands and knees from the shaking.

After what seemed like a much longer time that it was, Harry managed to get to his feet. His eyes widened at the sheer size of the crater that had appeared in what was formerly a pristine park. That… would be a challenge to fix. His eyes darted around, he, wasn't sure that his precautions would have stopped that form getting out. Hopefully MBI would handle it.

"H-how was that, Harry-sama?" Yashima asked nervously.

Harry rubbed at his ears, just about able to hear her. "That, was certainly, unexpected."

Yashima bit at her lip anxiously.

"Good though, more than I was expecting." He admitted.

Yashima broke into a relieved grin, "I'm glad."

Harry's lips quirked into a wry grin. "Alright, lastly, Kuno."

The girl pulled into herself, "D-don't expect too much." She muttered.

Walking over to the crater, she took a deep breath, before letting out the same ear-piercing shriek as before. Harry winced, and he saw both Yashima and Akitsu do the same, albeit with different intensities. After a moment the sound ceased, and Kuno looked over at him, tears in her eyes.

He walked over, "Let's, let's try your Norito." Harry said, inwardly shuddering at how god-awful that would probably sound.

She looked away, "If, if that's what you want." She whispered.

Harry took hold of her chin, her eyes closing as he leaned inward toward her, pressing his lips to hers, her wings appearing behind her. As he pulled back, she whimpered, reluctant to let go of his warmth.

"Show me what you can do Kuno."

"O-okay." She nodded. She took a step back, coming dangerously close to the edge of the crater. " _This is the song of my vow… please light the path for my ashikabi!"_

With the incantation stated, she began to sing.

Harry closed his eyes, it was… gentle. Relaxing, warm. He felt all the strength, all the tension, the worry, the anger, he felt all of it slipping away. His head suddenly cleared, shaking it furiously, some sort of mental compulsion cast through song? Opening his eyes, he watched Kuno sing, her arms bruohgt to her chest, a small smile on her face.

It was a bit of effort, but he could shrug off the compulsion. He glanced over at the other sekirei, both sleeping on the floor where they had been standing.

Kuno… she really had a wonderful voice. Even without the compulsion. He closed his eyes, enjoying the song. He couldn't make out the words, but, it filled him with… peace. Something he was unsure he'd ever truly felt.

He shook his head, smiling softly, it really was dangerous. He continued watching the girl as she sang. It really was relaxing.

The song ended and she continued standing there. "Kuno?" he asked.

She turned to him smiling. Then she coughed up blood, falling backwards. His eyes widening, he lunged for her, following her into the crater, "Kuno!" he shouted.

He followed her over the edge, sliding down the edge of the crater after her. Reaching her comatose form, he drew his wand, waving it over her, some diagnostic charms flooding his head with information.

Her body couldn't cope with the strain of using her power. The more delicate parts, the organs, took the brunt of the damage. As it was, it wasn't life threatening, so using potions he had limited amounts of would be a waste. Some rest, and she should make a recovery. The few healing spells he knew weren't suited to this kind of thing.

In order for her to use her power, her body would have to be enhanced. To do that, there were two options he could see; using some of the leftover potions he'd obtained for his own use, which might have an unknown effect given her non-human physiology. Second, take her to MBI. Given they'd tinkered with her body in the first place, it might be best to wait to get her files before doing anything.

Satisfied she was in no immediate danger, he pulled her up over his shoulders, he cast the flight spell he'd copied from Voldemort, rising swiftly into the air, barely managing to stop himself near the edge of the crater.

He frowned, the spell had never been that responsive before. Outside of special circumstances; his patronus sprang to mind, proficiency with spells didn't tend to just jump in such a manner. He didn't have time to ponder the phenomena though.

"Harry-sama!" Yashima shouted, running over to him worriedly. He saw Aktisu slowly following behind her. "Is she…?"

"She's fine." Harry reassured, lowering himself to the ground gently "she just needs some rest."

Yashima's face broke into a relieved smile, "Thank the Gods." She whispered.

"What, happened?" Akitsu voiced. Harry had to admit surprise, she didn't seem to be the inquisitive type.

"Her body can't handle the strain of her Norito." He explained, "If she gets some rest, she ought to be fine. You Sekirei seem to have fairly robust bodies."

"H-Harry-san?" a weak voice murmured from behind him, "W-was I good?"

"Yeah. You were brilliant." He replied, "Just rest for now. You'll be fine."

"O-okay." She whispered, relaxing across his shoulders.

He sighed as he closed his eyes in thought. "Alright, I don't want to apparate if she's not in the best condition, so, let me fix this place up and then we can go get breakfast." He decided, drawing his wand again.

* * *

They certainly made an odd image as they walked the streets one guy, followed by two women with a third being carried across his shoulders, thankfully the muggle repelling charms stopped anyone from paying them undue attention.

"So, anyone have a particular place they want to eat?" Harry asked.

"Um, th-there is a place near here I used to go." Yashima said meekly.

Harry glanced over at her, nervously looking at her feet. "You sure you want to go there?"

"Ye-it's fine."

He stared at her for a moment, before shrugging, "Lead on then."

He waited for her to pull ahead of him, and followed her towards whatever place she was going.

"I-It's just up here." Yashima called back, turning to face him, and inadvertently walking straight into someone.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" the woman snapped.

"Ah!" Kuno exclaimed from his shoulders.

At the same time, Yashima also pulled back, gripping her hammer, "I-I remember you!" she muttered darkly, "I won't lose now!"

An almost identical woman appeared from behind her, "Look, we don't want to fight, we're just trying to work."

"A-after you chased me all around the city?" Yashima snapped.

The calmer woman sighed, "We don't fight emerged ones, we just want to stop sekirei from emerging, with this game, it's just going to be painful for all involved."

Yashima staggered back, looking away. "I-I don't accept that!" she said weakly.

The woman she bumped into snorted, "Whatever. Look, you found your ashikabi, so we no longer have a reason to fight. Just, go away somewhere."

Harry took this opportunity to step in, "Hey there."

"You these girls ashikabi?" she asked, eyeing his group, "call them off will you?"

Harry glanced at them, "I get the feeling you caused them some trouble. Well, I'd prefer to avoid unnecessary fighting." He said firmly, placing a hand on Yashima's arm reassuringly, even as she flinched at his words. "That said, I've not met an Ashikabi and had a chance to speak with him." He drew his wand, using Yashima as a cover, poking the tip through the gap between her arm and body, for now, casting a fairly weak compulsion charm, "Could you give me yours's phone number?"

The two twins glanced at each other for a moment, "I don't see why you'd want to talk to that bum, but I guess." She proceeded to give him some kind of business card. Harry glanced at it, something along the lines of 'handles any problems and troubles'. He supressed a snort, he doubted whoever it was could even put a dent in _his_ troubles.

"Thanks." He said nicely, "we'll be going on in."

The two of them bowed, "Have a good time." They intoned, clearly something they were employed to say.

They made their way to a free corner, Harry gently setting Kuno down in the seat before joining at her side. Aktisu and Yashima sat opposite them. He idly let his view wander to the latter's hammer. What an eye catching weapon. Really, it didn't suit his wanting to keep a low profile at all. Would it be worth shrinking it, or would that cause trouble if he needed to restore its size in a hurry?

He glanced sideways towards Kuno. Her Norito. He glanced back to Yashima. He didn't have much to go on, just Yashima's, but her Norito just seemed like an amplification of her base power. Kuno's on the other hand, it didn't amplify sound, but rather, caused her voice to have some kind of mental compulsion ability.

It wasn't something he couldn't overcome, but it was definitely more than he had anticipated. Was there more to her ability than Kuno was aware of?

He drummed his fingers on the table; either way, until Kuno recovered some more and Takami sent over her data, there was little point thinking about it.

The four of them ordered some food, though he didn't really know what he was ordering. He turned his mind to his sudden improvement in flight capability.

The last time he used it was the night he invaded MBI, after he formed a bond to Kuno, and found Akitsu. What had changed since then? The only thing of note was his stealing of Yashima. He glanced over at her; her power seemed to be some kind of gravity manipulation. It wouldn't be strange if gravity influenced the ability to fly. He didn't fully understand the spell, so it might have been what was missing.

He brought his hand up to rub at his chin. Causing an emergence in a sekirei established some kind of bond. It was a fact that it brought about various changes in the sekrei themselves. Bonds were established between _people_ , if it influenced one end, it wouldn't be strange if they influenced the other as well.

"U-um, Harry-sama?" came Yashima's nervous voice.

He blinked, looking up, "huh?"

"Y-you just had an intense look on your face." She murmured weakly.

Harry forced himself to smile, "Sorry, just had a lot to think about." He focused on the girl in front of him, "How are you holding up Yashima?"

"Huh?"

He glanced around, "Well, switching ashikabi is a pretty big change, I guess, and, since you brought us here, means you were taken here before. I thought you might have some bad memories.

"I-" Yashima looked down, "It… it's confusing. I, I still, about him," she shook her head, "I'm… happier, now, I think." She mumbled.

Harry reached out, laying a hand on her head reassuringly. She looked up at him, a bashful smile on her face, "by the end, he'd never make me feel this… warm." She whispered.

He honestly couldn't think of anything to say to that, so, seeing the food arriving, he let his hand fall back to his side.

"Ittadakimasu." Harry blinked at the unfamiliar word, repeated by all three sekirei. He shrugged it off, it probably wasn't important.

"H-Harry-san?" came Kuno's meek voice.

"Hm?"

"You said to ask you again later, so, um, can you tell us about other wizards now?" she murmured.

Harry sighed, letting his prosthetic rest on the table, drumming his fingers against it.

"Yeah. Suppose I should, shouldn't I" He responded, thinking about what, exactly, he should tell them.

"Alright." He decided after a moment. He subtly drew his wand, flicking it to cast a privacy charm.

"First things first, wizards and witches are people, good, bad, and every stop in-between." He explained, "unlike ordinary people, it's much easier for a skilled wizard to make an impact."

He glanced at their faces, Kuno and Yashima looking at him with rapt attention, Akitsu looking as neutral as ever.

"There was a bad wizard, pretty much unstoppable. And, well, due to circumstances, the world expected me to beat him, but… well," Harry shrugged, idly lifting a finger to trace the famous scar on his forehead, "he's better than I am. I… left, to find a way to beat him." It wasn't exactly how it played out, there was a lot more whiskey in those early days, for one thing, but it was a pretty accurate description of his current agenda.

"The world… the world disagrees with me. The magical governments probably fall in to one of two camps, those who want my head to appease the bad guy, and those who think throwing me at him will cause things to sort themselves out. Either way, I'd rather not get involved with them."

"T-then, can't you explain that to people?" Kuno suggested.

Harry smiled wryly, "Heh, I doubt it." He'd never had the best of luck when it came to swaying public opinion, even in the best of times. "Wizards I meet can generally be sorted into four types." He explained, raising a hand to count them off, "People who work for the Dark Lord, people who work for the governments, freelancers; either mercenaries, bounty hunters, or people looking to make a name for themselves, and people who meet me and fancy their chances at taking me down, but wouldn't go out of their way to come after me."

He leaned back, picking up his spoon to toy with his food, "a lot of them are, shall we say, unconcerned with collateral damage." He smirked in self-derision, "Naturally, I get the blame for all of that. My public image is probably almost as bad as That Guy's at this point."

"That guy?" Yashima asked.

Harry shook his head. "The Dark Lord's."

They fell into silence. There were probably more questions they wanted to ask, but, either from sensing his mood, or some other reason, they left them unasked. He was grateful, he didn't really care to talk about it.

"A-and what about that scar?" Kuno asked.

"Hm?"

"The, the scar on your head," she said, "you rubbed it while you were talking, so, I thought…" she trailed off. She really needed some more confidence. He didn't really know what to do about that though.

"The Dark Lord gave it to me." He confessed, "It's, some kind of… connection. A symbol." He snorted, "Even now, people that see it recognise me instantly. It's a real pain." Especially since the damn thing somehow eroded at glamours trying to hide it.

"Couldn't you wear a headband?" Yashima suggested.

Harry opened his mouth to refute her idea, before pausing, unable to think of a reason. Why didn't he wear a headband? It wasn't _that_ uncommon, and it would hide it perfectly.

"I… literally can't believe I never thought of that." Harry confessed. He sat, contemplating how he'd overlooked something so simple.

After a few moments, Yashima interrupted again, "u,um, Harry-sama?"

"Hmm?"

"C-can I," she fumbled "Can I f-feed you?"

"Huh?" Harry said dumbly.

Yashima blushed, "w-well, I mean, like, 'say ahh'."

Harry stared at her nonplussed. "Huh?" he repeated.

"M-me too!" Kuno insisted suddenly.

"Ah," Akitsu started, causing Harry to look over at her.

"You too?"

"…yes."

Harry sighed, rubbing at his head, "Whatever. If it'll make you happy, then sure. Knock yourselves out."

"Thank you!" Yashima said happily, reaching over for his plate, "Say 'ahh.'"

* * *

After they'd finished the meal, they'd left the building. There'd been a large number of older persons pointing and chuckling behind their hands, but, given the ecstatic look on Yashima's face, and the smiles adorning the other two, admittedly a faint smile on Akitsu's, he couldn't really bring himself to care overly much.

After all, it was hardly the worst attention he'd received over the years, and those pointing and stares usually didn't have people he was forced to admit he at least somewhat cared for being happy as the cause.

Well, either way, he was happy to be away from it, even after all this time he was still somewhat uncomfortable with it, though this was unlikely to lead to a fight for his life, so, brightside.

Glancing once again at the Sekirei, he considered the situation. With regards to the Sekirei, MBI, the vague 'reward' for this silly scheme the muggles had cooked up. He didn't have enough information, but… he could try breaking in again, he was fairly confidant in his ability to do so, but it might harm his relationship with the organisation.

True, the relation wasn't that good, but they were definitely interested in him after both Yashima and his break in. There would probably be some way to turn that to his advantage. If he could only think of it. He grimaced, not for the first time, he wished Ron and Hermione were with him. They were always better together, the three of them pushing each other. One of them would figure out how to make the situation advantageous. He laughed softly, mirthlessly, and here he was trying to avoid pointless thoughts.

They'd left. A long time ago. If they hadn't… well, things would certainly have been different. He doubted he'd be here, for one.

He was pulled from his musings by something bumping into him. His body moved reflexively, cathing the person before they fell to the ground.

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention." He apologised.

"No, I was looking at something else." The girl replied. He took a moment to examine her, average height, black hair. Seemed like a perfectly ordinary teenage girl.

He released his hold on her, taking a step back, "Well then, if you'll excuse me." He mumbled, moving around her.

"Ah, yeah. Sorry." The girl said.

Just as he was putting the girl from his mind, she spoke again.

"Wh-whoa," she breathed, "They can't be real!"

Mildly curious, he turned to look, seeing her staring at Akitsu… or rather, Akitsu's exposed cleavage.

He stared, amused as she mumbled to herself.

He had to admit, the next bit caught him by surprise.

The girl had the guts to reach out to a total stranger and seize hold of her breasts.

Harry was sufficiently taken aback that he didn't respond, at least for a few seconds. Aktisu's face remained completely impassive, but Harry had a vague feeling that it annoyed her.

He stepped toward the girl, raising his hand, bringing his hand down on the girl's head, "Oy."

"Ow." The girl complained, moving her hands to her head where he had chopped her. "Hey, what's the big… idea?" she trailed off, staring at the fake hand, still hovering in the air where it had impacted her.

"That's… _so cool."_ She breathed. A moment later, she blinked, "Ah! Sorry, that was insensitive of me." She said, bowing her head.

Harry snorted, "don't worry, I'm pretty thick-skinned." He held it up, looking at it. "And, well, it is pretty cool." And it was certainly useful. He couldn't regrow an arm, since it was lopped off with Dark Magic, and he wasn't sure he would if he could.

"Ahaha," the girl laughed nervously, before straightening, remembering something, "What's the idea with hitting me, huh?" she demanded.

Harry quirked an eyebrow, "You mean, when you were molesting Akitsu?" he replied, nodding his head toward the girl.

The girl made a 'geh' sound, "W-well, we're both girls, so it's fine, right? Right?"

Harry stared at her, the intensity of his gaze causing her to sweat nervously.

He flicked his eyes to Akitsu, "Did you mind?"

Akitsu held his gaze, before looking to the side, "I don't care." She murmured, "But, if it were you…" she trailed off, her cheeks reddening.

"Th-there!" the girl exclaimed, "She doesn't mind!" she nodded vigorously to herself.

Harry sighed, "It's up to Akitsu, I suppose. But really, there's a time and place for things, you know."

The girl looked away.

Harry glanced to the other Sekirei, Kuno was holding her arms across her chest, whereas Yashima was standing normally, staring at the ground. He figured Yashima was, at least somewhat, used to that kind of thing.

It kind of pissed him off.

His lips twitched as an idea struck him. His hand shot out, grasping at the modest chest of the girl.

Predictably, she yelped, jumping back, "W-what the hell!" she yelled, crossing her arms across her chest.

Harry winked at her, raising his hand, vibrating with a soft sound. "Not nice? Try and learn from this, alright?"

She looked away again, red faced, "I-I'm sorry. Just, I couldn't believe how big they are," she looked again at Akitsu, "I mean, it's ridiculous." She said sullenly.

Harry inwardly agreed, but it would be insensitive to voice that in front of Akitsu.

"Heh, come on, let's go. See ya 'round kid."

He grimaced at what she muttered as he left, Sekirei in tow, "Kid? He doesn't look much older than me."

* * *

He'd sent the Sekirei off so he could get back to looking around. They'd met up again for lunch before he'd gone off again. He'd probably done just enough on that front for now. Next, he'd just have to memorise routes to them. He couldn't bank on whoever he ran into being able to track apparition, so he'd have to know the closest one at any place in the city, and the best way to get to them. Streets that weren't too crowded, nor too deserted, allowing people to follow, and not risk open confrontation.

He smiled to himself, he'd not done something like this since he'd been trying to track down a 'lost city' somewhere in South America. He sighed at the memory. Inferi. An entire city of them. Well, he'd picked up a thing or two that might come in handy. He'd long since lost his squeamishness with blood.

Of course, he'd have to be in pretty dire straits to use an irreplaceable artefact. He shook his head, he was done here, he should get back. He idly considered apparating, before dismissing it. There was no real rush, and no real reason to stay off the streets. He'd just walk it. It'd be good to have some time to consider the Sekirei, and any possible effect they were having on him.

He stopped in his tracks. He felt a shiver down his spine. Something was wrong. He glanced around, narrowing his eyes. The people… there were none. It was relatively late, so it wasn't too surprising, but it was suspicious, as was this feeling he was having.

He mentally activated his eye, allowing it to swivel. He frowned in thought. There was _something,_ at the edge of his thoughts. His eyes widened, his wand appearing in his hand and slashing out.

The air appeared to shift around him, his eyes darting around, searching for what he knew must be nearby. He idly tapped his wand against his thigh, putting some charms on his clothes. He really hoped he was wrong.

 _There!_

His wand slashed out, " _sectumsempra!"_ he spat.

A nearby lamppost fell with a screech, crashing into the ground.

A figure dropped from the sky, gracefully landing atop the broken post, gently brushing the hair away from its face.

He focused on it, the face, it seemed kind of familiar. His eyes met hers, bold, dark, crimson.

 _An image, the vampire's face pulling away from his neck, dripping crimson._

He stumbled back a step, hand coming to his face. Shit, the vampire was already in his head. He focused on his occlumency exercises, he needed to keep his attention here. More importantly;

"Didn't I kill you?" he demanded.

The vampire laughed, a dark look upon her aristocratic features. "Moi? One such as Moi would not be killed by thee." Her eyes narrowed, "'Tis funny though, in my centuries, I hath killed scores of thine kind, and I could swear, that I had killed thee."

He let his eyes roam the vampire, a rather tight black leather outfit. He grimaced, couldn't get more stereotypical, outside of gothic Lolita, but in that, she was unlikely to have any concealed weapons. His eyes fell to her hands, not that she would need any to eviscerate someone.

He forced himself to relax. The moment he made a move, the vampire would attack. That said, he had to make a move. If he waited too long, the vampire would start it, and he couldn't afford to give up the initiative, especially given the vampire would perhaps have made correct assumptions about certain things.

If those assumptions even approached the truth, the vampire's survival was not an option even worth considering. It left a foul aftertaste, but it couldn't be helped.

He took a deep breath, had to focus, he couldn't afford a screw up. Now; the opponent was a vampire. Expect immense physical prowess, depending on its age, there were a ton of potential abilities it could have developed. It's reference to centuries was kind of foreboding on that front.

So; expect at least some magic resistance. Curses might be ineffective. He glanced around, best to use terrain manipulation. He wasn't great at that on the fly, transfiguration? Touch and go. Might be fine. Anti-vampire spells? It would take a moment to focus the spells, he'd need a distraction.

Fire? Fire worked on most things. Had to be careful about collateral. MBI might cover it up, but it might draw unwanted attention. He grimaced, what a pain in his arse.

He saw the vampire tense its legs. Time to go.

He started off by throwing something flashy; literally a flash, to hopefully make his opponent flinch, missing his next move. A spell that summoned a hail of arrows. One of the few spells he learnt courtesy of Ron and his endless quidditch talk.

He gaped a moment at the response; the vampire's body turned to mist, the arrows passing through.

He rallied himself, that was highly unfortunate. No time to dwell. He mentally locked Moody's eye onto the vampire, one of the many useful abilities it possessed, so long as it kept working.

The vampire had returned to physical form, and had begun rapidly closing the distance between them.

New plan, he conjured a chain, flinging it at the vampire. He followed it up with a wide banisher; that would stop its advance if it misted again.

It jumped over the chain, the banisher still managing to push it back, causing it to stumble the landing.

He focused, had to keep a tight rein on this, he slashed his wand, a whip of fire lashing out. It scorched the road as the vampire seemed to vanish.

His eye kept on target, tracking the vampire into the air, as it launched itself off the lamppost.

Quickly assessing its trajectory, he lashed out with another sectumsempra, its body misting to avoid it; a sharp hiss of pain telling that it didn't entirely work on the dark magic.

As the vampire landed, it lashed out with a hand, the surroundings being consumed by a darkness deep enough to deaden eve his artificial sight. He grimaced, a trick he was familiar with. Honestly, helping the twins get started with their shop seemed to keep coming back to bite him.

He dismissed the history from his mind. A being of darkness like the vampire would be much less hindered by it. Think, where would it attack from? He pointed his wand behind him, throwing up a shield spell, one thing he knew he was good at.

There was a crackling, hissing sound and the vampire screeched in pain, even as it's blow sent him tumbling down the street. He gasped as air was driven from his lungs; thankfully there was little pain, his protective charms tanking most of the damage.

As he finished tumbling, he pushed himself to his feet, trying to get his bearings. He took the opportunity to lock the eye back on target, stabbing his wand at her. She leapt to the side, a mighty crack accompanying a large chunk of the road being destroyed.

He was forced to switch to defence as a chunk of the asphalt came flying at his head. It bounced harmlessly off of his shield, but he was forced to turn, shielding against the next piece.

He was once again grateful, if he didn't have this fake eye, he was doubtful he'd be able to keep up with its movements.

As if a direct appeal to the higher powers that seemed to have it out for him, that thought triggered whatever glitch was present in his ocular accessory that caused it to jam in its socket.

"Shit." He cursed.

He struggled as best he could to keep up, but the vampire was too fast with things to push herself off from.

The stream of projectiles stopped. He quickly glanced around, why would she stop then… He span, raising his wand as he looked up, seeing the vampire lunging toward him from above. He quashed the momentary panic, sending a stream of flames from his wand, what he fondly named the flamethrower charm.

It wasn't enough. Heavily burned arms shot through the flames, grabbing the wrist holding the wand and wrenching it to the side, as another arm shot forth and grabbed him by the throat, lifting him off the ground.

With the flames gone, he could see the heavily burned face of the vampire, a hideous mess, even as is slowly began to heal before his eye.

She began cackling, "Finally, finally Moi shall kill you!"

Harry merely grunted, unable to speak with the grip around his throat. He glanced to the hand still being gripped. This had to work.

"Thou shot a hole through my chest, burnt down my home, and killed all my pretties, now, Moi'll finally make you pay!"

He grimaced, partly at the unbidden memories of her thralls whom had picked him up during a period of inebriation and self-pity at some bar, and had led him back to their home, and partly at how he'd been forced to cut them down as they scratched and clawed at him, insane with fury after he'd thought he'd killed their mistress. It seemed what they said about vampires attachment to their belongings was as bad as it was claimed. She'd followed him across half the globe to kill him, it seemed.

He released the wand from its place in his hand while the vampire rambled, and focused all his attention on it. He was rewarded by it not falling down, but rather being summoned to his free hand.

The moment it was in his hand, he swung it up, non-verbally casting sectumsempra at the vampires face.

Barely a moment had passed before he bit back a scream of pain. The vampire had released his fake hand and had grabbed the one now holding his wand. She had then snapped it. He could see the bones jutting out. That would be a mess to fix.

His eyes went to the vampires face, to the small scratch across her cheek. Had he been able to speak, he'd probably have shouted something like, 'Oh come on!'.

"To cast such a pathetic curse… It's like thou're a wet behind the ears whelp, using someone else's wand." The vampire mused.

He grimaced, he didn't like to think about the difficulties his wand gave him from time to time, he was hardly in a position to get it looked at.

"Well, Moi thinks it is time to lay this matter to rest, time for thee to die."

He swung his arm up, grabbing at the limb grasped around his neck.

For a moment, he and the vampire simply stared at it. The limb seemed to be incased in a red glow, deep, ominous looking veins appearing along it, pulsing with crimson energy. It felt like it was, for lack of a better word, feeding from the vampire.

He honestly had no idea what was happening.

The vampire's response was a lot more violent. With a shout, he was turned in place and flung through the nearest wall. He kept the presence of mind to try and summon his wand from its place on the floor, unfortunately losing his concentration as he was smashed through the building. Pain lanced through his body. It seemed his protective charms couldn't keep up with that on top of the hits he'd taken through the fight.

He tried to get to his feet, failing miserably as pain lanced through his broken arm. He tried again, somehow managing it. He glanced around. He didn't have long before, ah! There it was. He struggled forward, grabbing his wand.

"U-um, are, are you okay?" a person asked. Harry looked around, seeing the source of the voice. Youngish, (though looking older than him) black hair, scared shitless and kinda dopey looking.

"Stupefy." He muttered, rendering the young man unconscious. It was better this way.

He glared at his wand, of all the times to fail… He shook his head, no, he needed to focus. He breathed deeply. All right, plan set, now to put it into motion.

* * *

The wind seemed to blast through her hair as she leapt from the rooftops. He was in danger… her ashikabi! She wasn't sure who it was, though she had her hopes that it was someone kind, like the man that kept helping her out, but she knew he was this way, and that he was in trouble. That's why, that's why she had to get there, as fast as she could!

She was sorry about the lampposts she'd broken, using them as landing platforms… and the cars… and that one shop she'd accidentally fallen into… but it was important! There might not be anything more important than this!

She was also sorry about skipping out without paying for her meal, but it couldn't be helped. What if the time it took to pay was the difference between making it or not?

She landed on the roof, taking a few steps before pushing off with everything her les could muster. She winced as she heard the roof cracking where she'd jumped. But it was okay! MBI would definitely pay for it… maybe.

She landed in the middle of a road that had been used as a battle ground. She looked around, spotting a house with the wall broken. Had she… No! that had been broken when she'd gotten here!

The feeling was coming from there, so she jumped up to the hole in one go. Landing, she quickly scanned the room. One unconscious guy in the corner, one woman in the middle, leaning over… AH! It was him! Then… was he, was he really her Ashikabi-sama!

Her heart beat wildly, yes, it was him, it was definitely him. She was happy. She wanted to bounce right over there and embrace him. But… he looked pretty beat up. The woman had picked him up by the neck.

"Hey! Let him go!" she demanded.

The woman turned, "…And _what_ , exactly, are you supposed to be, little girl?"

"Sekirei number Eighty-Eight!" she announced, "Musubi! And I won't let you harm him!"

The woman dropped her saviour to the floor. He wasn't moving.

"Alright, Moi does so enjoy new delicacies. Besides, a starter makes the main course sweeter."

She dropped into a fighting stance, "Here I come!"

* * *

The Sekirei was pretty good, he supposed. He wasn't such a good judge of martial prowess to say for sure. But she was outclassed, even to his, admittedly amateur eyes.

The vampire could match her power and speed, or more, and had way more experience with fighting. Added to that her ability to go intangible, he was pretty sure she was playing with the girl.

"You have talent, girl," the vampire told her, "And you are pretty enough. Yes, I think I shall make you mine."

"Musubi doesn't belong to you." The Sekirei replied, "I've finally found him though."

"You say that like you have a choice." The vampire countered, amusement in her voice. Her eyes began emitting a red glow.

Musubi's body stiffened, before relaxing.

"Very good," the vampire said hypnotically, "Now, present your neck to your master."

Musubi followed the instruction, as the vampire leaned in and bit into her neck.

Damn, Harry mused, no time to fix the arm, gotta go now.

He brought his wand up, resting it against his forehead. He took a deep breath, he couldn't afford to let his wand fail again now.

" _Solaris Secare_ "

A bright beam of light burst form his wand, he slashed it at the vampire, who began to turn in shock, crimson dripping from her lips.

As the light went across her body, it seared from the beam, the smell of burning flesh reaching across the room, her body being cleanly cut in two. Black marks adorned the walls where the beam passed, but the girl, Musubi, behind her was unharmed, though her clothes were further damaged by his attack.

"H-how?" the vampire coughed.

He glanced to his side, where a body that looked like him lay, before it shimmered, turning into a mannequin he'd transfigured from the rubble. His spell had disrupted his disillusionment. He turned back to the vampire.

"My question, how did you survive before?"

The vampire laughed and coughed at the same time, a rasping sound. "Birth defect, my heart, it's on the other side."

"Tch." Harry raised his wand, "The lesson form this? Always double tap." Fire burst from his wand, reducing the vampire, both halves, to ash.

Job done, he turned to the Sekirei, who was wobbling on her feet. He shot forward, grimacing in pain, catching her as she fell.

"Ah, it seems, you're rescuing me, again." She whispered.

He smiled, "You helped me out, this time."

She smiled beautifully, though the crimson adorning her throat kind of spoiled it, "I'm glad, my Ashikabi-sama."

Her hands came up, barely managing to take hold of his head, gently trying to pull his face down to meet hers.

He didn't have the heart to resist, and gently pressed his own lips to hers, bright pink wings of light sprouting form her back, and eliciting a sound incredibly similar to moans he was familiar with hearing from amorous activities.

The moment was cut short due to her passing out, but it seemed he'd gotten another one. He looked around. He could try and fix this, but… he shook his head, the girl was more a priority. And fixing himself up. He looked down at his arm, wincing. Damn, it wasn't pretty. He glanced to his other arm. Well, that was just a whole new thing he had to try and figure out.

He floated the girl across his shoulders, and with one final look around, disappeared.

* * *

A man looked at his computer screen with rapt attention. The scene, one of his little birds fighting something that could match her in unarmed combat, and with powers of its own. He grinned, a cackling laugh threatening to erupt.

The questions this raised! What was that? How was the participant in his game involved? He watched as said participant bisected the unknown, and then incinerated the remains. A pity, what he could have learned from the body!

He waved his hand, replaying the video from the start of the recording.

A giggle burst from his lips, He had to know, he had to find out! He should focus on the Sekirei plan, he'd spent so long, people he cared for had put all they had in it, he couldn't stop, but… he wanted to know! It was like a whole new world opening before his eyes!

His eyes gleamed, he had to speak to him, this mysterious man who hid behind fake name after fake name, but who to send to escort him in? Who indeed. He watched the video again giddily.

* * *

After apparating them back to his hotel room, he'd done what he could, both for Musubi and himself. Musubi had seemed to be recovering fine, so he'd just fixed up the wound. Vampirism was nowhere near as contagious as muggles thought, so it was highly unlikely she'd contract it. If Sekirei even could.

Anyway, he'd been a bit more trouble. But a foul-tasting potion and a few charms, including one to hold his arm in place, and it would be fine in the morning. Just ached now.

He'd had to leave the room though. Partly to drown his troubles in alcohol, he knew of a few places, partly to get away from the sekirei.

He always hated taking lives, and when it happened, he liked to get away to a bar to throw a one man misery party, at least for a night. As for the sekirei, well, he could see clear as day that Kuno was torn between being depressed about his new acquisitions attractiveness. There was a metaphorical cloud of depression hanging over her head. Yashima was apparently worried about being replaced, not surprising since they met by switching what they'd thought was a permanent bond. As for Akitsu? He sighed, fucked if he knew what she was thinking.

He'd deal with it tomorrow. Now to wash away his troubles with streams of whiskey.

Entering the dimly lit bar, he couldn't stop himself from examining the other patrons. A bunch of muggles who looked like they'd come from some office, a few apparent regulars in the corners. One beautiful woman, who, if he wasn't mistaken, was a Sekirei.

No one of apparent note, and no one who paid much attention to him coming in. Just the way he liked it.

Walking to the bar, he moved past the Sekirei. Their eyes briefly met, before he carried on. He wasn't here for anything other than drinking.

Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out a small mound of cash, placing it on the bar. He pointed to a bottle he was familiar with. "The whole bottle."

The bartender's eye's stared vacantly for a moment, before he nodded, grabbing and handing over the bottle. A little charm made everything easier.

"Thanks." He responded, taking the bottle over to one of the booths. Was the money sufficient to cover the cost? No idea. But paying something made him feel happier about the whole affair.

Moments after he sat down, there was a thunk as a pair of glasses were placed in front of him.

Looking up, his eyes met those of the sekirei again. "Can I help you?" he asked cooly.

She helped herself into the seat across from him, tilting the glass towards him. "I prefer not to drink alone." She said.

He snorted, "I do." He countered.

The woman smiled, "Just pour me a drink will you?"

He rolled his eyes. "Fine," he said, opening the bottle, "I guess I owe you one for the glass." He began pouring. Filling her glass, he began to pour his own, only to be stopped by the woman grabbing the bottle.

"Can I help you?" he repeated.

Her expression twisted, "You're not from around here, are you? It's polite to pour your drinking partners drinks."

He rolled his eyes, but acquiesced, letting her take hold of the bottle, pouring his drink. He kept a close eye, not seeing her try and slip anything into it, nor did the glass have anything in or on it, to his very close eye.

When she was done, she put the bottle down, picking up her glass, raising it towards him. Understanding her intent, he raised his own glass, chinking it to hers, before throwing it back. He placed the glass down, relishing the burn. Moments later her glass joined his.

"Haahh," she gasped, "That's got more kick than my usual poison."

Harry sniggered, "Yeah, that's why I go for it."

He reached to pour himself another glass, interrupted by her offering her own. He rolled his eyes, but nonetheless poured for her and allowed her to pour his again.

They downed their next glasses in silence. While they were pouring the third, Harry spoke up. "So what brings you to a place like this?"

She quirked an eyebrow, "A bit personal for someone you just met?"

He snorted, "In my… experience, people only bother me when I'm drinking, if they want to talk about something they really don't want to talk about." He eyed his drinking partner, "Also, by my guess, you've been drinking a while, and the bartender's cut you off. Now you're… mooching."

She winced, "Harsh. But fair, I suppose. Fine, I'll tell you." She swooned back dramatically, "I'm drinking to forget a failed love."

Harry smirked wryly, "Failed love, huh? That, always hurts."

She leaned forward, "Oh? Some girl turned you down?"

He chuckled, "No, it wasn't like that." He paused. He glared at the beverage in his hand. He quickly became pretty chatty after consuming even a little. But… he couldn't help it. Not tonight. He threw back the glass, offering it for a refill. "You were talking about your love, if I recall."

She grinned wryly, pouring him a new glass, "Fair enough. Not much to say. I made a shot at the guy. He shot me down. Caught him later with another woman." She shrugged, "Haven't found my wings since."

Harry sighed. "Que será será. Whatever will be will be," He explained. "Can't blame him if there was someone else."

She grumbled, "I don't care for truths when I'm drinking. Your turn."

Harry leaned back. "There was a girl. Looking back, it was a crush, but at the time… well, I was sure she was the love of my life. Being with her, well, it made the world seem brighter. I… needed that. But… I had things I needed to do. They were dangerous. I couldn't let her come. I-I suppose I wanted her too, even despite that." He trailed off.

"What happened?"

He threw back another glass. Harsh words? Abandonment? There was blame all around, even if he was more inclined to lay it at his friends' feet. "Shit happened. I had to leave the country, and, well, I was in a dark place. Had to get my head sorted. I've not seen her since. Heard she's engaged to someone else now. Happy." The 'more than me' went unsaid.

"Really? That seems sudden. You can't be a day over seventeen." She pointed out, pouring another glass.

He snorted. "Yeah, seventeen. I'm seventeen alright." He'd been seventeen for far longer than he'd care to admit.

She tilted her head, "huh?" she asked, offering her glass.

He poured, "No, it's nothing. I'm… older than I look."

There was a long moment of silence. "If that happened in the past, what brings you here tonight?"

"Hm?" Harry glanced up. "What indeed." He murmured. "If it's them or me… well, I won't apologise for making sure that equation ends in my favour. But… well, I usually drink to forget the fresh blood on my hands. But then, I suppose you'd know about that, being part of the battle royal in the city."

She stiffened, "What do you mean?"

He rolled his eyes, pouring her a new glass. "You're a Sekirei, right?"

She sighed, "Yeah. Got me there."

She leaned forward, "So, do you want to make me yours?" Their eyes met, before Harry closed his, leaning back.

"Not really. Just drinking."

She laughed softly, "I'll drink to that." She raised her glass, "Sekirei number zero-three. Kazehana."

He paused. He probably shouldn't, but… "Harry Potter." He introduced himself, chinking his glass to hers. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

They had a few more glasses, the coversation lulling about inconsequentially, before their conversation was interrupted as the door opened. He stiffened, glancing over at the arrival of another sekirei. He gave her a once over. Cute young lady, pink hair, wore her anger like an aura, practically pouring off her.

"I'm looking for a Peter Potts!" She loudly announced to the room.

Harry sighed. Yeah, that was one of his fake names.

He turned, planting a smile on his face. "Yeah? Can I help you too a drink?"

He could practically feel his drinking partner's confusion. "Fake name." he whispered.

"You're coming with me to the tower." She said, storming over.

He chuckled, "I think not." He said, discreetly drawing his wand and flicking it in her direction. He frowned, feeling the spell fizzle. He grimaced, again, so soon? How unlucky. He properly made sure to make the proper motions, casting the spell.

This time it worked, and moments before grabbing him, she stumbled. She grabbed hold of a nearby chair, shaking her head. "I-I need to bring you in." She mumbled.

"You look a bit unwell." He told her.

She spun round, stumbling again, "I, you, come…" she mumbled.

"You should lie down."

She staggered back, falling into a chair. "I-what?"

She fell forward, her head impacting the table with a dull thunk.

He frowned. Huh. She was way more susceptible than he'd ever have guessed. He scratched his head.

"What was that?" Kazehana muttered from beside him.

He glanced over, before taking out his phone. He quickly navigated the menus, arriving at the number of the MBI president, which had been in the phone when he got it.

"If it isn't our little mystery! Congratulations on obtaining number Eighty-Eight," came the annoying voice, "would you mind coming over? I've sent someone to pick you up!"

He glanced at the lightly snoring sekirei. "Yeah, she's… indisposed."

"Really? How… intriguing."

"Anyway, I'm in no mood for a… chat. And now that you've completely killed my buzz… Well, try asking before sending someone to… escort, me. It's rather… rude." He narrowed his eyes, trying to think. It was… likely that he somehow knew about what had happened with that vampire. That might… complicate matters. He shook his head, he'd deal with this after clearing his head.

"Hmm. I suppose it might be for the best. If you've subdued One-oh-Five, number Zero-Four would be next, and she may not keep you… able to answer my questions." The president acknowledged. "You need time to come up with an explanation while keeping whatever secrets you don't want me to know."

He glared at nothing in particular. Behind his… eccentricity, he certainly had a keen mind. "Send someone to pick your girl up." He told the man, hanging up the phone. "how annoying."

He glanced over at Kazehana. "It was nice drinking with you. Maybe we'll get a chance some other time."

"Hmm." She acknowledged, "Perhaps."

He turned away, another person who had questions he didn't care to answer. He glanced around the muggle bar. Once again, he was the centre of attention. He nodded to the bartender, before making his way to the exit.

* * *

Once he was certain he was out of sight, he disappeared with a crack, reappearing outside his hotel room. He checked the wards, making sure no one would come upon him with him unaware, before quietly making his way in.

He glanced over at the bed. Musubi was still on the matress he'd transfigured for her, Kuno and Akitsu were sleeping soundly on the bed, but Yashima had risen slightly, looking over at him.

Their eyes met in the dim light. "Yashima…" he breathed. There was a tense moment of silence, as his eyes roamed the pale flesh of her nude body. "I need you."

Her lips turned up, a smile forming, "O-okay."

* * *

 **A.N. What to say here… I really don't care for fight scenes. If only I could come up with a story that didn't seem to need them. Or I could figure out how to skip them well. Once again, I read some scenes, and I think 'what the hell am I doing'. Unfortunately, I can't think of a way to do them better, and I don't really want to cut them out.**

 **As always please review and stuff.**


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